


Transformers: Power of Ten

by grimlock_trex99



Category: Ben 10 Series, Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: Different Omnitrix user, Gen, Minor Character Death, Minor crossover with other series, Multiple Crossovers, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-05-31 03:12:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 50
Words: 311,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6453124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimlock_trex99/pseuds/grimlock_trex99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A crossover of the Transformers Prime and the Ben 10 series with elements from the Kamen Rider series, the Fallout series, and several others. Originally posted on fanfiction.net. It's still there incase if you wanna check out the original. Is part one of what I'm going to call TFP Omnitrix saga.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginnings

Chapter 1: Beginnings  
Near Jupiter...

A battle between two ships was taking place. One ship was green and blue and looked like a predator drone with two blades on either side of its wings. It was being attacked by a much larger vessel, one that looked like a faded maroon tuning fork with glowing orange spheres at the aft section and along the keel.

The large ship fired bolts of red plasma at the smaller vessel. In response, the green ship charged two cannons and fired twin streams of green plasma. That seemed to cut the ship up a bit, but failed to stop the attackers.

Inside the tuning fork ship...

"Hull damage at twenty percent, weapons systems still operational." An orange and black humanoid robot said. He spoke to his master, an alien with green skin, red eyes, a tentacle beard, and wore black armor with red accents along the joints.

"I have come to far to be denied." The alien said. "The omnitrix shall be mine," He said, hands in a position that seemed like he was trying to crush something. "and there is not a being in the galaxy that dares to stand in my way!" He closed his fist and slammed it down on the armrest of his throne.

On a US highway...

An old beat up replica GMC motorhome drove down the road. Its license plate number was S81Z1M. The RV was pulling a trailer that had a motorcycle on the back of it.

There were four people inside it, a woman in her mid thirties who had black hair and blue eyes and wore a tan vest and green scrubs. The second was a fifteen and a half year old japanese girl with brown eyes and black hair with pink accents she wore a tank top that had a pixelated robot on it, a yellow belt, a pair of jean short shorts, indigo and magenta leggings and black knee high boots with pink straps. She sat across from an orange haired twelve and three quarters year old boy who wore orange rimmed glasses, an orange sweater vest, a yellow dress shirt underneath it, a pair of jeans, and a pair of white sneakers. In the passenger's seat, a black haired sixteen and a half year old boy wearing a white long sleeve shirt with a greyish brown short sleeve shirt over it, a pair of slightly loose blue jeans, and dark blue and white tennis shoes sat next to the woman who was driving, reading a graphic novel called Kamen Rider Spirits.

"Hey Mrs D, thanks for letting us come on this trip with you and Jack." The girl said.

"Your welcome Miko. Normally this is something Jack and I do with his grandpa and two of his cousins, but seeing as they're busy this summer, why not take you two with us?"

"But why are we taking Arcee with us?" The boy questioned. "If we need the 'bots, we could just give them a call."

"Well think about it like this Raf; If the 'cons attack you while you're in an area with no cellphone reception, would you like to be with Bumblebee?"

"I guess so." He answered.

"Good." She looked up to see that the exit for Yosemite national park was coming up. "Hey Miko, could you wake up Arcee and tell her that we're almost there?"

"Sure thing." She got up from the table and walked to the back of the camper, passing a refrigerator, a bathroom with a shower across from a closet, and then made her way into a bedroom where there were two bunkbeds that had sheets on them. Miko saw a human woman that had dark blue, almost black hair, a dark blue leather jacket, a pink undershirt, black jeans, black boots, and a tattoo on the right side of her neck that was of a symbol that looks like a mechanical facel. Her skin was tanned and she wasn't poorly made either, having a 34C sized bust and an equally well sized rump as well. She even had a bit of muscle which was seen in her lower torso, but that added to her physical beauty that to many would be enough but to some, like me and the focus of this story would just serve as a compliment to this female's personality.

"Hey Arcee." Miko said as she shook the woman's head.

"*Yawning*What is it Miko?" She groggily asked, eyes partially opened to show their light blue irises.

"Jack's mom told me to tell you that we're almost there." She said. "Hey, you look different by the way."

"I changed my holoform so that it would look a bit more normal. Because would a leather clad woman wearing a motorcycle helmet turn as many heads as this?" She said, standing up. She saw that Miko was going to answer that and couldn't stop her from saying something.

"Well, it'll turn heads, but for a different reason. Arcee, I might not be a lesbian, but if you were somebody that I didn't know as well, I'd become at the very least bi-curious because of you, maybe full out bisexual. Or would it be xeno-bisexual seeing as you're an alien?"

"I don't know, but as long as you stay away from Jack, then I'm okay." Arcee said, speaking about her partner.

The human girl and the cybertronian femme using a holoform walked to the front of the camper to find that June was driving up to the entrance to the camp ground.

"Oh, Arcee, you're up." The woman who was driving said, smiling as she glanced over her shoulder. "Hey when we get to the campsite, which before you say anything, I made sure was in a place where we wouldn't get any visitors, would you mind getting some fire wood?"

"Sure thing June." Arcee said.

"Great, Jack, I'll need you to set up the fire pit, Raf, you try to set up the little shelter I got for Arcee's alt mode, and Miko, you can get some of the stuff that we need out of the storage compartments, you know, chairs, table. It'll start the prep for tonight's dinner."

"What are we going to be having Mrs Darby?" Raf questioned.

"Just a little something that my dad taught me how to make."

Jack realized what this meant and got a sick looking expression on his face. His grandpa from his mom's side cooked up some very strange meals, but sometimes he made food that humans could stomach.

Back in space...

The smaller blue and green ship was being torn apart by the larger vessel pursuing it. A well placed plasma bolt destroyed the ships engines.

"Their propulsion systems have been destroyed." A four eyed drone said. The blue ship had sent a distress signal to the only one within transmitting distance who could help.

"Prepare to board." The leader said. "I want the Omnitrix now!"

The green ship fired a very powerful blast of green energy at the victorious ship's bridge. In retaliation, the damaged ship fired its center cannon and destroyed the smaller ship, leaving only the front section intact.

It launched a silver object that opened up to reveal a sphere that looked like a metal roly poly bug.

Later, on Earth...

Jack had just recently gotten the fire pit clear of debris and was just waiting for Arcee to get the firewood so that he could light a fire to start working it down to embers so that his mom could cook on it.

He looked around to see that Raf was getting the cover for Arcee up pretty easily, despite his height.

"Mom, what was that?" Jack asked as he saw something fall from the sky. It seemed to crash land somewhere nearby.

"I don't know." June replied, but she knew her son was curious. She went over to Miko and grabbed her wrist. "If you're done setting up the fire pit, you can go check on it. But Miko, you stay here."

"Aww! I wanna go find a meteorite."

"You need to finish getting the chairs out, and maybe help Raf get Arcee's little 'tent' set up."

"Fine. By the way, where is she?" Miko said, her ponytails drooping down.

"Where's who?" Arcee asked. She came back carrying a large sack of logs that she had over her shoulder. "Oh me, I was just getting the firewood June told me to get." She tossed the axe she used into the ground. "Where's Jack going?" She asked.

"He went to go check on a meteorite that just crashed." Raf answered.

"Oh, you want me to go with him?" Arcee asked.

"Nope, he can handle it himself." June said, getting back to prepping the food she and the kids would be eating later. "Arcee, could you break some of that wood into kindling?"

"Okay."

At the meteor crash site...

Jack walked up to where the meteorite landed. Its path seemed like a dried up riverbed. He approached where the path ended and found what crash landed. There was a metal sphere.

"It that one of the Iacon relics?" Jack asked himself out loud. "Maybe I should take it to Arcee so that we can get it before the 'cons do." Jack hopped down the crater. When he was a yard away, the pod opened and revealed its contents; a watch that was green with a black stripe in the middle of the strap, and had a dial that was grey around the rim was fifty percent black and had the other half was what appeared to be a black piece of glass that was in an hourglass pattern. There was a knob on either side of the dial, perpendicular to the strap and hour glass shape."What's a human sized watch doing in a cybertronian pod?" Jack asked. "Or maybe this isn't Cybertronian, what if some other aliens made this?"

Jack took two steps forward and reached out to grab the watch. The watch, as if acting as if it were alive, scanned the surroundings in the span of a tenth of a second and then jumped onto Jack's wrist and in a way similar to gluing itself on became stuck, and no amount of shaking would get it off. The hourglass shaped glass turned blue.

"Get off! Get off! Get off!" Jack shouted, trying to pull the watch off. He accidentally pressed down the knobs that caused a hologram of a being that was a magma-based lifeform whose body seemed composed of a bright magma body covered by rocks.

"Cool. Or is cool not the right term?" Jack was curious as to what this could do. "You know what, I wonder what would happen if I pressed this dow?"

Starting from Jack's left wrist, dark red rocks grew, covering his skin until his entire body was covered. He got taller by a few feet. His feet became more oval shaped with two toes in the front and one in the back. His head became similar in shape to Iron Man and had what resembled lines leaving the eye holes that may or may not be tear ducts.

"Heatblast!" Jack shouted, for some reason. (In Ben 10 Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, it was never explained why Ben did that.) "Whoa. I'm on fire." Jack said, taking a mental note on how his voice change. "Wait, I'm on fire! Ah! Ah! Ah! Somebody help me!" He panicked, he laid on the ground and rolled back and forth, stopping when he realized he wasn't being hurt. "Okay Jack, just keep it cool, metaphorically speaking. Just head back to the campsite and Arcee will contact Ratchet so that he can fix me. Yeah, that'll work." Jack retraced his steps and headed back.

"But if Doc bot's gonna take this off, what's the harm in having a little bit of fun?" Heatblast said as he jumped down a dry river bed. He held out his hand splayed open and a ball of fire materialized. He considered using trees for target practice, but that would be what Miko would do. "Don't wanna start a forest fire." He then flung it at a small boulder, melting it. "Sweet." Jack said as he saw what happened. He then Climbed out of the river bed, grabbing a fallen tree to do so, but it burst into flames. Thankfully, the flames did not spread and extinguished themselves rather quickly. "Okay, note to self, don't touch anything but the ground."

Later at the campsite...

"I wonder where Jack went off to?" Raf asked. He took a bite out of the food that June made. "Wow, Mrs Darby, this stuff's really good, what is is?"

"It's my own creation, hamburger meat with a seasoning made using several spices that I'm not at liberty to tell you." June said with a smile.

"I don't know, but wherever he is, I just hope he's okay." Arcee added. "And can I try some of that?" She asked.

"Um, 'cee, you 'bots can't have human food." Miko said.

"And who told you that?" She asked, bringing up something that is rarely brought up in any transformers series. Besides that fact that they're robots, why don't they eat what humans eat?

"Um, you know what, nobody told us that, I just figured since we can't eat energon, you guys can't eat what we eat. Isn't that right?"

"Well, yes and no. We can consume what organic lifeforms can eat, but it's not very efficient in powering ourselves, it'd be like one of you trying to live off of flavored water. No nutritional value but it tastes good." Arcee explained. Two side notes: There's really nothing that says cybertronians can't eat human food, and what Arcee meant by flavored water refers to just adding the flavor to it, not the drink mix that adds the flavor and has some other stuff. And in some continuities they can taste.

"Well, if it's okay for you to eat, here you go." June handed Arcee a plate of the meat with the secret spice.

Arcee used a salad fork to scoop up a bunch of it. "Mmm! This is pretty good!" Arcee explained.

"You think so? Ah gee, you're making me blush." June said.

"Hey Mrs D..." Miko said suddenly with fear in her voice.

"Yes Miko?"

"About those spices, was one of them LSD?"

"No. Wait, why are you asking?"

"Oh no reason, just that there's a monster made out of fire that's walking towards us!"

"Miko, if you're trying to sneak seconds before Jack even gets here, it won't work."

"Miko, there's nothing like that on earth." Raf said. "Oh scrap!" He said after turning his head the direction Miko was facing. "It's a monster!"

"What you kids are just trying to... by the allspark!" Arcee saw the creature to. "Get back you freak!" The autobot femme said. She deployed her blaster and pointed it at the 'monster', she then fired at it, causing it pain and sending it back.

"Ow!" The creature groaned. "What was that for?!"

"Get away from these humans! Arcee fired at it again, causing it more pain.

"Arcee stop! Please! It's me Jack! We're partners! Remember?!" It said while it shielded itself from the blasts.

Arcee flashed back to her conversation with Jack and her after she chased off Airachnid.

"I'm sorry you had to face my demons today Jack." Arcee said, feeling both angered that her arch nemesis got away and relieved that Jack was okay.

"Actually, I was terrified, mostly for you." Jack said rather calmly for someone who was almost killed by a maleficent look alike.

Arcee smiled before touching two of her fingers to her helmet.

"Ratchet, requesting ground bridge." Arcee said. She saw Jack swat at a mosquito that landed on his shirt. "Need to get my partner far away from any oversized insects."

"Partner, huh?" Jack said rather smugly and with a smirk.

"Junior partner, I can still pull rank."

Arcee then snapped out of her flashback. She looked at the fire creature who claimed to be Jack. She then asked him something only two other people would know. "Jack, remember what I said about being partners?"

"Yeah, I'm your junior partner." Heatblast said.

"Yeah, sorry about attacking you." She approached Heatblast, reaching out her hand to help him up.

"Don't touch me." He said. Arcee looked at him with a shocked expression. "What? If you touch me I'll accidentally melt your hand off."

"Oh." Arcee's face changed to a neutral expression.

"So, now that that's over, can I get something to eat?"

"Sure." June said, getting a plate of her cooking ready for Jack.

Later...

"So you're telling me that a watch turned you into this monster?" Miko asked. Raf tossed Heatblast a marsh mallow.

"Pretty much." Jack said. He caught the treat, roasting it in his hand before eating it.

"Miko, he's not a monster," June said. "He's an alien." June got some strange looks. "I mean, look at him."

"Think he'll stay like this forever?" Raf asked, concerned for his friend.

"I don't wanna be Heatblast forever. How am I supposed to go back to school in a few months if I turn the whole place into a pile of charcoal the moment I open the door?" Jack moaned.

"Don't worry Jack." Arcee reassured her partner. "We'll help you figure this thing out."

A beeping sound was heard and in a flash of red light, Jack was in place of Heatblast.

"Whoa!" Miko exclaimed. "Can I have a go?"

"Miko." June looked at her with a bit of concern.

"What? I just wanna turn into an alien! Preferably one of the 'bots."

"Miko, we don't know how that thing works." Raf said.

"And besides, I tried taking it off." Jack added, trying to pull it off. "It's on my wrist permanently."

"Well, if you're stuck with it, you might as well learn how to use it." Arcee said.

"Jack, you said that you found it in the meteor, right?"

"Yeah, it landed about a mile that way." Jack said while pointing in the direction of Heatblast's foot prints.

"Okay. I'll go and check out the crash site, you three stay here. Arcee, you're in charge." June said, walking over to the camper and grabbing a flashlight.

"Got it."

Back in the aftermath of the space battle...

In the red illuminated command bridge, the ship's captain, though I hardly doubt that's his actual rank, was in something that was akin to a bacta tank in Star Wars. He was really torn up, only his head was fully intact and that had a breathing mask on. He had most of his right arm and part of his right thigh, but for the most part, he was suffering from wounds that would make Megatron's post Darkness Rising Part 5 damage seem like a paper cut.

"What do you mean it's not there?" The captain rasped. "This battle nearly cost me my life. And you have the audacity to tell me that the Omnitrix is no longer on board the transport?!" He hissed at one of his drones.

The drone tried to ease his master's anger by trying to give what his processor labeled as 'good' news. "Sensors indicate that a probe was jettisoned from the transport just prior to transport. It landed on the nearest inhabited planet."

The captain turned his head to face a robot with red optics and an H R Giger Alien style head. "Go, bring it to me."

Back in Earth...

"So Jack, while your mom's gone, can I at least look and see what else is on that watch thingy?" Miko asked.

"Sure, just try not to transform me into anything." He pressed to two buttons that made the hologram appear. He then let Miko cycle through the aliens that were on it.

"Jack, your mom said that's an alien, which is a lucky guess." Arcee said.

"What do you mean?" Raf was curious as to what Arcee meant.

"I've seen something like that before." Arcee said. "While I was on an off world mission, my team and I were refueling at a space station where there were so many strange aliens. And I actually learned the names of a few of them."

"And you know what kind of alien Heatblast is?"

"Yes, he's a Pyronite from Pyros."

"Wow, that planet must be one big smoking section." Miko said.

"Oh, it's a star. As in a star like the sun." Arcee said. Raf looked at her like she was crazy.

"A star? A star can't support life." Raf was confused.

"Yeah it seems strange, but you probably know that the universe is a big place. Heck, even the Milky Way has a ton of strange creatures, the Pyronites being one of them."

"Jack, what did it feel like when you turned into an alien?" Raf questioned.

"It felt like I was being ripped apart and put back together at the same time, but I was being made into someone else."

"Hmm."

"This one looks kinda cool." Miko said as she stopped cycling through the aliens when she came to one that looked like a human wearing a bathrobe with a hood. She then pressed the dial down.

"Miko, what did I tell you?" Jack said. He tried to stop her but it was too late.

Jack's body slimmed down a bit as he got taller. His body was covered in a chitin like material. It was in blue in places that resembled armor, such as the chest plate and along the limbs. His head took on a more rounded appearance. His hands went from having five fingers to four, slimming down to be like pincers. Jack's feet turned into two toed insectoid feet with a long heel spur. His eyes turned into deep blue orbs with light blue lines running through them, as if to replicate those of an insect. Four moth like wings and a set of antenna grew out of his back, only to cover his body as a sorta coat and hood. His transformation was complete.

"Big Chill!" Jack said in a raspy voice. "It's kinda strange how I keep on coming up with names for these." When Jack spoke in this form, his breath was visible.

"Wow!" Raf said. "What does this one do?"

"Let's find out." He exhaled and a stream of his breath hit a tree stump, causing all the water in it to freeze, turning it for all intents and purposes, a block of ice.

"Well, at least we know which one to use against the 'cons." Miko said. "Or if we wanna make it snow in Alamo on Christmas."

"That would be cool." Jack said, placing emphasis on 'cool'."

"Hey Raf, can't moths fly?" Arcee asked.

"Yeah they can. Jack, why don't you try flying." Miko said.

"Okay." Big Chill said as he stood up and extended his wings. He flapped them and took off.

"Jack, say close to the ground. We don't know when that watch will turn you back into a human."

"Okay Arcee, don't worry, just chill out." Jack said. He then flew off in the opposite direction his mom went.

"Guys, did anyone else notice that Jack placed emphasis on words relating to cold?" Miko said when they were sure

At the crash site...

The robot that was sent by the ship's captain landed near where the pod did. It was in a colpsed state when it hit the ground. It extended its arms then deployed its clawed fingers. It raised its head, then unfolded its three legs, completing its deployment.

It looked around and saw the pod that Jack found the watch.

"Error. Omnitrix is not in transport pod." Its readout said. It held out its right hand and after a second, it fired its laser at the pod, destroying it. "Detecting trace amounts of Omnitrix energy. Sending scout drones." It deployed two disk that were on it's shoulders and they unfolded into robots that had red optics that gave them 360 degrees of vision, five metal claws and one arm that resembled a blaster.

Later, at the crash site...

June arrived later after the giant robot and the smaller drones had left. She examined the debris left by the larger robot.

"I don't like this one bit." June said as she looked at a shard of metal that she found.

Back at the campsite...

The two mini drones arrived at the campsite where Miko and Raf were roasting marshmallows while Arcee watched.

"Scans show traces of Omnitrix energy, as well as a substance known as energon." One of the drones said to its counterpart on their own communication frequency.

"Energon is not our objective. However, the omnitrix might return to this location." The other drone said. "Unit K3N-Y, follow Omnitrix signal. This unit will remain here."

"Affirmative." The other drone said.

Somewhere in the forest...

Jack was flying through the forest, getting a bit higher as he flew. He did a loop around a limb of a tree and stood on it, his wings folding up to their cloak form.

"This is so cool." Jack joyously said. He exhaled again, turning some of the leaves into what were basically plates of ice. He then unconsciously unfolded his antenna and detected something. He made himself invisible and saw one of the robots pass by right in front of him. It looked right at him and moved away.

"What the frozen scrap was that?" Jack said. He apparently didn't expect the robot to hear him. It turned in his direction and fire a red beam of plasma. Jack unfolded his wings and flew back to the campsite, the robot firing on him all the way. "Wait, why don't I try fighting it? I can't just use this to run away. If I do that, what's the point in having powers?" Big Chill turned himself intangible, but not invisible. He let the robot pass right through him. Before the robot could react, he made himself solid and exhaled, freezing the robot and caused it to fall out of the sky. But it didn't shatter like he hoped, so Jack grabbed its frozen chassis, and took it up about a hundred feet in the air and dropped it. It shattered into many pieces of ice, metal, and circuits when it hit the ground. "That was so cool."

Jack landed on the ground, his wings and antennae folded up. He noticed that some parts of the robots were still one piece. He grabbed one of the robots intact arms and thought to himself: "I never did get Raf something from cybertron. Maybe he'll like this." He then was going to fly back to the campsite, but he heard a beeping sound before he could take off. He was reverted back to his human state.

"Well, guess I'm walking." Jack said. He slung the robot limb over his shoulder and walk in the direction of the campsite.

Back at the campsite...

Jack got back about fifteen minutes later to see that his mom was back.

"Jackson Benjamin Darby, where in god's name were you?!"

"I was flying around." Jack said.

"Flying?!" June was shocked to learn that Jack could fly. "How?!"

"Miko turned me into this guy named Big Chill, who's basically a moth with ice powers."

"And Miko, why did you turn him into this "Big Chill'?" June asked.

"I just wanted to see one of his alien forms first hand. And it was either that one one that looked like an eyeless dog."

"Okay, one more question, what's that piece of metal that you have?"

"Oh this, it's a limb from a robot that I fought."

"You what?!" June was pissed.

"Don't worry mom, I didn't get hurt. In fact, the robot couldn't even touch me."

"But why did you keep the limb?"

"Oh! Almost forgot." Jack said. "I forgot to get you something from Cybertron, Raf, so I hope you like this. It seems to be alien." He then handed Raf the robot part.

"Thanks."

"So what did the robot look like?" Arcee asked.

A humming like sound was heard as the second robot made himself known.

"Like that." Jack said, pointing at the rusty orange colored drone.

"Jack, I think you should transform right now." Raf said.

"Okay." Jack tried to ready the watch, but found that it was still red. "Scrap! Arcee, mind dealing with that?"

"Sure." She deployed her blasters and shot at the drone. She only landed a few shots on it, but those blows only chipped off pieces of the armor. She kept on firing, trying to by Jack some time so that he could transform. The robot fired back, scorching arcee's shin armor when it hit. "AH!" Arcee moaned in pain. "Any time now!" She yelled, her aim getting sloppy as the robot scored more hits on her.

The watch's dial went from red to blue. Jack raised it and selected one of the aliens to use. He stopped at one that looked like it was made out of diamonds.

"It's hero time!" Jack shouted as he slammed the dial down.

Jack's whole genetic structure went from being carbon based to silicon based. His body became a purple crystal substance. His arms and legs extended as his torso got larger. His head got a bit taller as well. His hands turned into magenta crystals that had four fingers. Eight crystal spikes sprouted out of his body, two near his shoulder, six on his back in a location similar to where bumblebee's door wings would be. His head became more angular, adopting a cycloptic style of vision. He had a magenta crystal 'face plate' and a mouth. His transformation was complete when the watch's dial appeared on his chest.

"Chromastone!" Jack shouted with a slightly high pitched voice. "Why didn't it give me what I wanted? Is this going to be common?" Little did Jack know that it was going to be a regular thing.

Jack was shot at by the drone.

"Oh scrap!" Jack shouted right before the beam hit him. He dodged it, causing a scorch mark to appear on the log the drone's beam hit.

"Jack! Are you okay?" His mom shouted.

"I am. Just get Miko and Raf to a safe distance."

"Aw man! I wanna watch the smack down!" Miko said.

Arcee continued to try and take down the drone.

"Fine. Get Miko to a place where she can see."

"Jack, watch out!" Raf shouted. Jack turned to see the drone fire its laser at them. He shielded the three humans and the beam didn't effect him.

"Wow. It's a bit tingly, but it didn't hurt. Maybe I could use that to my advantage." Jack mentally said. "Come on you flying tree trimmer, hit me with everything you got!"

"Jack no!" Arcee shouted.

The drone fired its energy beam at Jack. Jack just stood there and absorbed the energy. Eventually, the drone's weapon overheated and it stopped firing, but what it shot at Jack was enough for him to use.

"My turn." Chromastone grinned. He shot a beam of multicolored light out of his arms when he extended them at the non living robot. It was fired to a crisp in a blast of ultraviolet radiation.

"Woah." Miko and Raf said in unison.

The sound of thumping was hear.

"What's that?" June asked.

The main robot came out of the forest, its clawed hands knocking down trees that were in its way.

"Jack, I think papa robot is here to pick up his kids that you killed."

"Scrap." Jack and Arcee said in unison.

"Jack, try turning into another one." Miko suggested.

"How?!"

"I don't know, try using that thing on your chest."

"Hmm, it worth a try." He rotated the dial on his chest to the left slightly and then pressed it down.

In a flash of blue light, he was in a much smaller form.

"Grey Matter!" Jack was transformed into a four inch tall, frog like alien. "Seriously! I need muscle and you give me a frog! Actually, I can work with this." Jack used Grey Matter's greater intelligence to think up an idea. "Arcee!"

"What is it Jack?" She turned her attention from the robot who was looking for Jack to the tiny alien at her feet.

"I believe I have a thought up a plan for me to beat that Decepticon wannabe."

"How?"

"Get me on it. I'll handle it from there."

"Okay, what ever you say so." Arcee said. She held out her hand. Grey Matter hopped up onto it. She made sure he wouldn't fall and ran towards the robot, dodging it's blasts. When she got close enough she jumped and using the hand Jack wasn't in, punched the robot in the head, causing it to stumble back. "Be careful Jack!" Arcee said.

"Oh I will." He said. He dove into the interior of the robot and prepared to take it down. "Let's pull a few of these out." He removed some circuits from the robot's arm controls. "Nice. Now let's give 'Cee an edge. Dropping shield on front torso." Grey Matter rearranged some of the wires and basicly f***ed that scrap up.

Outside the robot, Arcee took shots at its torso, noting that it was acting weird. It was twitching and sparking.

"Wow. Jack really knows how to break things." Arcee said as her shots started to pierce its armor. Eventually they hit the power core and it went offline, falling over as a result.

Grey Matter emerged from a hole in the head and proudly cheered:

"Aw yeah! Who's bad? I'm bad!" But to Arcee, Miko, Raf, and June it sounded like squeaks.

The dial on Jack's chest blinked and in a flash of red light, Jack was human again.

"Oh thank god it timed out." Jack said. "Not gonna lie, but the bugs on the ground were looking pretty tasty. And not one word from you Miko." Jack glared at Miko before she could comment.

"Arcee, should we call Optimus and tell him to get Fowler to send a cleanup crew here?" Raf asked.

"That'd be a good idea." She held two of her fingers to the side of her helmet. "Arcee to base, is anyone there?"

"This is Optimus, Arcee, do you need any assistance?" The baritone voice of the Autobot leader said.

"Yeah. I do, and is Fowler there?"

"Why do you need agent Fowler's help."

"Uh, there's no easy way of saying this, but, just come here yourself."

"Very well." Optimus said. "Ratchet, ready the ground bridge."

Almost a minute later, a blue-green vortex of life appeared. The Autobot leader Optimus Prime and Agent Fowler of the US government walked out of it. They saw the burnt body of the mini drone and the broken body of the larger robot and were dumbfounded.

"What the Sam Hill happened here?" Fowler asked.

"We were attacked by a few robots." Arcee said. "But as you can see, I took them out."

"MECH." Fowler said. "How'd they know where you guys were camping?"

"Agent Fowler, it most certainly was not MECH, that one over there could hover and shoot laser beams."

"So, they're non cybertronian aliens?"

"Yeah. I think."

"How were you able to defeat these drones?" Optimus asked.

"I uh, um, you see..." Arcee tried to think of an explanation to keep the watch a secret, however Miko decided that she wanted to tell the truth, but only because this time the truth was awesome.

"Arcee was getting her rear kicked five ways from friday, so Jack used his new watch like this..." Miko grabbed Jack's left arm and raised the tower on the watch. "And did something like this..." she slammed it down on the first alien that came up, which was one that looked like a raptor.

"Miko, no!" Jack tried to stop her, but once again it was too late.

His arms and legs became slimmer. His legs gained a new joint as they adopted a digitigrade stance. His hands turned into three fingered graspers that had long, black claws that could be used as a spear. His head became elongated, adopting a more streamlined shape. A helmet formed, its visor opening to reveal which had blue eyes and white teeth. A tail grew out of his back, ceasing its growth when it was as long as the rest of his body.

"XLR8!" Jack said with a kind high pitched voice as if he was talking faster. "Miko! I swear, if one of these aliens is a bacteria that kills its host in minutes, I'll flip a coin to decide whether or not I'll use it on you and only you!"

"What the heck did you do to him Miko?" Fowler asked, not liking what was going on.

"I just turned Jack into one of the aliens that are on this fancy watch that he found." Miko said.

"A watch?" Optimus said.

"It's a device that keeps track of t-" Fowler was going to describe what a watch is but Optimus stopped him.

"I know what a watch is agent Fowler, but it would stand to reason that what turned Jack into a Kineceleran is not from Earth or Cybertron." Optimus said.

"Then what is it?" Raf asked.

"I am not sure. Jackson, could you return to the base with us so Ratchet may run some test on the watch?" Optimus asked.

"Okay."

"And why did you need me here?" Fowler asked.

"Um, there's two broken alien robots." Miko said. "We don't want someone getting their hands on them."

"Oh yeah. I'll get a clean up crew here tomorrow, just tell me when you guys leave so I can get a team here."

"Okay." XLR8 said. "Oh, and Fowler, see this limb over here." Jack ran over to the door of the camper and back in a half a millisecond. "I picked this one up from one that I froze solid and gave it to Raf."

"Fine, he can keep it, but I need to see where the rest of this third robot." Jack ran of and in a series of blurs, chunks of ice and piece of metal appeared on a tarp. "Okay. Thanks for the help."

"Now Optimus, I believe it's time for a check up." Jack said.

"Indeed." Optimus touched the side of his helmet. "Ratchet, reopen the ground bridge."

The vortex opened and Optimus and Jack walked through, Fowler following behind him.

Autobot Outpost Omega-1...

"Optimus, what was Arcee's situation?" Ratchet questioned. "And who is this Kineceleran."

"It's me doc-bot." XLR8 said.

Ratchet wasn't sure who this was. "Miko, is that you?"

"Miko? How'd you turn into a kine-alien?" The green autobot known as Bulkhead asked.

"Yeah, how did she?" Miko asked. Neither XLR8 nor Optimus noticed her come through the ground bridge.

"Miko?! If you're there, then who's that?" Bulkhead asked.

"Just wait a bit and you'll find out." XLR8 said.

The dial on Jack's chest blinked and made a beeping sound and in a flash of red light, Jack was human again.

"Jack? Huh? How?" Ratchet was dumb founded.

"I found this in the forest." Jack showed the autobot medic the watch. "And I found out that I can turn into aliens using it."

"Okay. Well, why did you come to base with Optimus?"

"Optimus said you should look over it to find out what it is. That is possible, right?"

"Yes of course." Ratchet said, he walked over to the medical bay, Jack following him. "Need any help?" He asked.

"Yeah, that'd be nice."

Ratchet held out his hand. Jack hopped onto it, then Ratchet helped him onto the medical berth.

"Thanks." Jack said. Ratchet nodded in response.

"Okay, let's see." Ratchet grabbed a pair of cybertronian sized calipers. He used them to measure the size of the pieces of the watch. "Sized just like a human watch. Where did you find it?" He asked.

"In a pod that looked like silver a rolly polly."

"A what?"

"It's a type of bug."

"You said the pod looked like this." Jack looked at a picture of a rolled up roly poly that was curled up and colored silver.

"Yeah, kinda like that."

Ratchet attached a couple of wires to the watch. He then took some scans of the watch.

"Hmm. This watch is giving off a form of energy similar to energon fusion." Ratchet saw a look of panic on Jack's face. "Don't worry, I said it was similar. This watch uses a self regenerating power supply, should last for around four billion years before it starts to wear out."

"Well, we now know what it's powered by, but what is it?"

"Hold on." Ratchet used the scanner on his arm. He scanned the watch and a 3D model of it came up on the screen that was at the head of the berth. "By the Allspark!" He said.

"What is it Ratchet?" Jack asked. "What's the watch called?"

"This is a piece of Galvan technology." The medic said.

"A what?"

"Galvan. They're a race of aliens who can create just about anything. Faster than light interstellar travel, life, gateways to pocket dimensions, and of course this. It's even been rumored that they have been trying to figure out the chemical formula of energon."

"Well, what do they look like?"

"This." Ratchet showed Jack an image of a small, frog like alien.

"Hey, that looks like Grey Matter."

"Who?"

"One of the aliens I can turn into using the watch."

"Oh yes, the watch. By the allspark, it can't be."

"Ratchet, you're kinda freaking me out." Jack said. "What's this thing called?"

"This is the most powerful weapon in the known universe. The Omnitrix."

"The Omni what?"

"The Omnitrix, a device made by one of the Galvan, a race that rivals the great Solus Prime in terms of scientific knowledge. But as to who made the Omnitrix, no one knows his or her name."

"How does it work?"

"Well Jack, based on what has been revealed about the Omnitrix by its creator's people, it seems to be using a genetic scrambler to change your genetic structure for a period of time."

"Can you get it off of me?" Jack asked.

"No. It would require its creator to deactivate the clamps. If I or anyone else were to try to remove it, it would break your genetic code, either killing you instantly, or causing irreparable damage, then it would kill you after a long, slow, painful death."

"So I'm stuck with it."

"Yes. The most powerful weapon in the universe, on the wrist of a human teenager."

"Ratchet, I don't think this is meant to be a weapon." Jack said. "If it were meant to be a weapon, it would've modified my personality to make me more aggressive." Ratchet looked at Jack with a look of curiosity."

"Well at least it ended up on your wrist." Ratchet said. "I think it's time to send you back to the camp site. I'll ready the ground bridge for you and Miko.

"Oh don't worry, I'll get there myself." Jack used the 'Omnitrix' to transform into... "XLR8!"

Jack hopped off the birth, ran to the main room to get Miko.

"Miko, climb on. It's time to go." Jack said.

"Okay." She climbed onto XLR8's back and held on tightly.

Jack ran up to the door controls and pressed open. He put it on auto close to go off after it opens up for ten seconds. He closed the visor on his helmet, which looked like the one on his motorcycle helmet. He ran through the open door way and while Miko was still on his back, he ran at full speed across the desert toward Yosemite National park, eventually making to the freeway where he no doubt set off the radar guns of some police officers. Miko used Jack's head to shield her face from bugs that if they hit her at this speed, would be like bullets.

After about ten minutes of running at full speed, he got back to the campsite.

"Why didn't you use the ground bridge?" Raf asked as Miko got off of Jack's back.

"Wanted to get a little jog in." Jack said.

The Omnitrix timed out and Jack was human again.

"Well, we better get to bed, we're heading to San Francisco tomorrow and it's gonna be a long drive. I wanna wake up early so we can get there with still time to do stuff."

"Okay." The kids and Arcee said.

Arcee transformed and went into the tent that Raf had set up for her. The humans went into the camper. Jack slept on the couch, which folded out to be a bed, June slept on the table, which also became a bed. Miko and Raf slept on the bunk beds.

Back in space...

The ship's commanding officer was being healed as his ship repaired. He had just received a word that the drone that he dispatched had been destroyed.

"Failure! Unbelievable!" He Rasped. "The puny earth being that is keeping the Omnitrix from me will soon hang on my trophy wall." He decided that he needed assistance from outside of his army. "You, prepare to send out a message on all tachyon wave lengths." He ordered one of his humanoid soldiers.

"At once sire."

"This is a message to any and all bounty hunters, mercenaries, rouges, scavengers, and the like. I am Vilgax. I am in need of assistance in obtaining an item called the omnitrix. The reward will be decided upon by whoever gets it for me."

Harbinger...

"It may be anything you might want. Wealth, power, anything."

"Hmm. This seems, promising." The ex decepticon Starscream said as he listened to Vilgax's broadcast.

On the Nemesis...

"You may keep the head of the human insect who bears the Omnitrix at the current time if you so choose."

"It will be great to have the head of a human on my trophy wall." Airachnid said as she looked at the stuffed animal heads that she had collected from her time on Earth. "Hunting these had been fun, but it lacks the fun of hearing my prey beg for mercy. This Omnitrix will be a true challenge, and a fun one at that."

"If you consider yourself brave enough to go after such a device, I am awaiting your arrival. I am currently in orbit around the moon of the third planet in the Sol system."

The next day, Miko, Raf, and June woke up to find Arcee helping Jack, who was in his Heatblast form, do some target practice with pieces of the robot that were bent to be similar to circles.

"Morning guys!" Jack said. "Hey Mom, check this out!" Jack charged up a fireball that was about as big as his head and flung it in the direction of the targets and when it got about halfway there, it split into five smaller fireballs that hit five targets that were in different directions.

"Cool!" Miko said, impressed with how great Jack was.

"Very nice." June was in a strange way, proud of him, well, as proud as one could be if your son turned into an alien made out of lava. "Say Jack, could one of your alien forms help us pack up quickly?" She said.

"Sure. Just let me go from Heatblast, to..." Jack turned the dial on his chest. "XLR8!" Jack then picked up all the trash, put away all the stuff that they brought and was finished in under a minute.

"Thanks Jack, now, let's get Arcee's alt mode strapped on the trailer and let's head off." June said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: For anyone wondering, yes this is based off of Ultimate10's Omniformer: The Beginning. Well, just the basic idea, which is it's a cross of Transformers Prime and Ben 10. This is going to incorporate some elements from the Ben 10 shows, such as the villains from the original series and Alien Force, and the alien forms from all the series, which I'll tell you which ones are from which series. I also have an interesting idea as to how I'm going to handle the concept of a cybertronian alien form. If you've read Omniformer: The Beginning, the cybertronian form in the Omnitrix after scanning a cybertronian is called Bluestreak, but in Power of Ten (Not the permanent title, it's a place holder until I come up with something better), the Omnitrix's cybertronian form if going to be interesting to say the least, both in the story and outside of it. Plus, expect a Predacon form, because Shockwave may have implied that the Predacons are a different species from the normal Cybertronians. And an Inves form if I decide to do my own Heroes United like thing, but instead of Generator Rex, it'll be with Kamen Rider Gaim. And if you're wondering why I'm having the Autobots know about the Omnitrix from the start, well remember the episode Speed Metal? Yeah, it showed us that the kids can't keep a secret from the Autobots. Plus it'll also make sense when Big Chill goes rouge.
> 
> Expect June to be OOC, but not to an extreme degree.


	2. Devolve

Location: ?

Two men stood in the center of a room facing several people whose faces were obstructed by the lights that were behind them, making it impossible to make out their facial features. Surrounding them were what appeared to be knights wielding what seemed to be wielding some sort of gun stood along the walls of the room.

One of the two men in the center, a man with pale green skin, white hair and wore a lab coat and black pants spoke up.

"You're cutting my funding?! This is an outrage!" The green skilled man shouted, obviously angry at what was going on. "I am on the verge of achieving rapid mutation."

"Your research, though promising, has taken too long and has yielded few results." One of the obstructed faces said. "Silas on the other hand, has provided our organization with more than just promises, Doctor Aloysius Animo. His work in studying these 'transformers' has allowed us to-."

"You honestly believe his lies!" Animo shouted. "Living robots from another world? I've looked over the data from scans he made of this 'deceptibot' known as 'Breakdown' and found that even if the evidence wasn't falsified, these lifeforms would've gone extinct eons ago! If it is to be believed that the data was real, they uses this 'energin' stuff as both their blood and source of energy, and the 'energin' is highly flammable." Animo pointed out one of the biggest flaws in transformer biology.

"Sirs," The man who wore armor that was not metal like the knights that stood around him and Animo, rather it was more akin to what a real life soldier would wear. He had a more normal skin tone, when compared to Animo's own, and had dark grey hair. "Animo is right to be concerned, but his concern should be on whether or not you decide on end his life." The armored man held out a hologram projector that displayed Starscream's T-cog. "This is the proof in the existence of the Transformers. The part of their anatomy that allows them to disguise themselves."

"But that is not enough! I want a live specimen so that I may run test on it!" Animo demanded. "Where is it Silas?"

"All living Transformers that we have recovered have escaped one way or another." Silas said.

Animo was getting angrier and angrier.

"Doctor Animo, leave this facility." Another one of the faces said. Animo turned and stormed out of the room. "Silas, should we end him? I am giving you the honor of deciding."

"No. I have seen his work and it has promise; as in it promises to be entertaining when he inevitably fails." Silas mockingly said.

"Very well. Animo may prove to be a distraction from those who would disrupt our plans."

Outside the compound...

Animo walked out of the building. He casually stormed down the street to his apartment to not attract attention when he passed an electronics store and saw that the TVs were playing news footage of a fire in a building.

"Reports from the San Francisco fire department are saying that a humanoid flaming rock entered the burning burning building after it was revealed that there were still people trapped by the blaze." The anchorman said.

"A humanoid fire? Eh, it can't be any stranger than what I just heard about." Animo said as he watched the live footage.

At the burning building...

A mother and her son were trapped in their apartment as the ceiling started to collapse. When it finally gave way, the mother shielded her son which would've been pointless if not for their savior.

"Who are you?" The boy asked. There was a humanoid being made out of molten rocks holding up the ceiling. It was the human known as Jackson Darby, who only a day ago found a device called the Omnitrix that allowed him to transform into aliens.

"You can call me Heatblast." The flaming humanoid said, tossing the section of ceiling that was going to fall on them. "And I'm here to help." Heatblast absorbed the flames that were blocking the door and kicked it down, allowing the two to escape.

They came to a flight of stairs.

"This way." Heatblast said. The stairs collapsed right after he said that. "On second thought, this way."

They ran towards a window that faced the road. Heatblast used a stream of flame to cut a section of the wall that allowed him and the two people to escape.

In a vortex of fire, which made one bystander scream, Heatblast and the mother and son were out of the building.

"Thank you." The boy gratefully said.

"Ah, don't mention it."

Heatblast was approach by people wanting to interview him. He was asked questions like:

"Who and what are you?"

"Where did you come from?"

"Did you start the fire?"

"Why did you save these people?"

Before he could answer any of their questions, he saw the Rust Bucket, which was the nickname given to the RV that his mom borrowed from his grandpa, pull up. Arcee's holoform was in the front seat next to June, who was driving.

"Matchstick!" Arcee shouted. "You can do interviews later. The fire here was a diversion to cover up a robbery. The crooks are getting away!"

"Uh, I knew that." Heatblast said as he ran into the camper.

Later...

The Rust Bucket drove after the robbers' getaway car. Jack was still Heatblast and was sitting in the front seat.

June sniffed and smelled something burning. She looked over and saw that Jack was burning the seats accidentally.

"In hindsight I probably shouldn't have told dad not to get those asbestos seat covers." June said.

"Sorry mom, I can't help it." Heatblast moaned. "I'm hot."

Miko sprayed Jack with the fire extinguisher.

"Sixteen super heroes on that watch and you picked the one with the flaming butt?" Miko asked.

"D'aw! Is someone jealous?" Heatblast asked. Miko sprayed him again, but this time, it was in the crotch area.

Arcee and Raf were trying to hold on as June took a bunch of sharp turns to keep up with the robbers.

June pressed a button that rolled down the window and Jack leaned out of it. He charged up a fireball and tossed it at the car, hitting it and causing its tires to melt. It skidded for a bit before crashing into a building. The Rust Bucket stopped as Jack exited the vehicle and walked towards the crooks, who despite crashing into a wall were okay, just a bit shaken up. He removed the door from the car and said:

"Unless you want a permanent sunburn, hands against the wall." Heatblast ordered. They did what he said as he twisted the Omnitrix. "You guys picked the wrong day to mess with this town. I think you guys should just-" Jack pressed the dial down. "Chill out." Jack was in his moth-like Big Chill form. He exhaled and froze their feet in place with his icy breath. The sound of sirens was heard as a couple of police cars pulled up.

"Freeze!" One of the police officers said. "Mothman, you can just chill."

"They're all yours officers." Jack said. He turned intangible and went back to the rust bucket before the Omnitrix timed out.

"Hey Jack."

"Yeah Raf?"

"Why don't you stick around and ask for a reward?" He asked.

"I don't ask for anything because all I don't want the fame."

"Why not? If I found the Omnitrix, I would use it to become an alien rockstar!" Miko said.

"When someone's famous, the paparazzi hound you. You're always followed, they would eventually find out about the 'bots, and then they would be hounded by the media and who knows what would happen after that?" Jack said, explaining why Miko's immaturity would've been the Autobot's down fall.

Animo's place of residence...

"Hmm, a creature made out of living fire, I must learn more." Animo said as he completed the finishing touches on his invention.

He heard a knocking on his door.

Animo's landlord was there. He said:

"Yo! Animo! I know you're in there! Open up!" He ordered. The knocking stopped when the man realized he had a key.

He entered the apartment to see various animals in habitats. "Phew! It smells like a zoo in here!" He commented on the smell.

Animo approach him from behind as his landlord looked at one of his frogs.

"Ah!" He screamed when he turned to see the unnaturally colored human standing behind him.

Animo was no longer in his lab coat, he was now wearing a torn brown vest, a green sleeveless shirt, and a pair of brown pants.

"How did you get in?!" Animo furiously asked.

"I have a key, I am still your landlord, remember." He said, Animo looking at him confused. "Maybe you forgot since your rent is six months past due."

"All my funds go into my research." Animo said. "Now get out!" He shouted, pointing towards the door. "You're disturbing me."

"Hmp! Looks like you were disturbed along time before I got here, pal." He said, rudely. "You and your furry friends are out on the streets if you don't pony up the green."

"Pony up? Interesting choice of phrases." Animo grabbed the frog his landlord was looking at. "You must be an animal lover, then you're gonna love this!" He placed the frog on the ground and placed a silly looking helmet on. It looked like red tipped horn that were on a spaghetti strainer.

"Ha ha!" The landlord laughed at the helmet. "What's that, you a member of the moose lodge or something?" He mockingly asked.

"This is my transmodulator." Animo said, pointing at the harness that he now wore. In the center it had a dial with a red light on the upper half of it. "Phase number one, it creates and accelerates mutations at the genetic level." He twisted the knob to the left and two red beams shot at the from, causing it to grow to the size of a small car. It also grew horns, an extra set of eyes, and visible teeth. It grabbed Animo's landlord and started to chew him. He was struggling. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you! It seems like you have a frog in your throat. Heh heh heh! Or is that, the other way around? Ha ha ha!" He laughed.

The frog spit him out, he was covered in a strange sickly yellow goo.

"So close to having what is rightfully mine." Animo said as he looked at a scrap of newspaper. "All I need is a few lousy components to finish my work!"

He then heard a TV commercial.

"So what ever your needs are from hairspray to state of the art electronics, you'll find them under one roof at the grand opening of San Francisco's new Mega Mart."

"Ah, just what the doctor ordered." Animo evilly said. He grabbed on of the smaller cages that held a hercules beetle in it. (A.N. If you have seen Transformers Prime, you know why I had Animo take that with him.)

At the Mega Mart...

"Okay everyone, you can each get something." June said to the four others. "Even you Sadie." June said to Arcee's holoform.

"Okay." They replied.

Miko went to go look for a screech metal album, Raf went to go find a computer game to play on the long drives, Jack went to go get a new book to read, while Arcee just looked around and waited for something to catch her eye. June however went shopping for tonight's dinner.

Jack then saw something that he had wanted for a while. It was an SH figuart of Kamen Rider #1 with the Cyclone. (A.N. That is a real thing.) "Some day you'll be mine." Jack said, in a sorta creepy tone.

Suddenly, Jack felt a rumbling. A crashing noise was heard. A wall of TVs was knocked over as Doctor Animo sat atop his mutated frog. He hopped off it and grabbed some electronic parts.

"Hey!" Jack shouted, getting the mad scientist's attention. "What do you think you're doing?"

The frog shot its tongue at some boxes that Jack stood behind, knocking them over. Jack dodged them and hid behind a display case and readied the omnitrix so that he could transform.

"Kid, don't be a hero, just run along and play." Animo said.

He selected a hologram of a quadrupedal creature.

"It's hero time! Did I really just say that?" Jack said as he slammed down the dial and transformed.

Jack's arms bulked up. His entire body was covered with orange fur. He grew a more animalistic mouth. There were gills on the sides of his head. He grew sharp claws on his now four fingered hands.

"Wildmutt!" Jack roared. Not said, roared. He jumped at Animo, but the frog struck Wildmutt with its tongue, Animo got back on the frog as he hopped on over to the pet section, with Wildmutt chasing after it.

Animo passed by the book section, getting Arcee's attention.

"What are they feeding the animals here?" She asked. She saw Wildmutt running in the same direction. "Wildmutt!" Arcee got Jack's attention. "Let's go!" The quadrupedal alien knelt down, allowing Arcee to climb on his back, and he then took off after the frog.

Miko and June were in the pet section looking at some of the animals, Miko was petting a hamster while June was looking at a cockatiel, and considered buying it.

They saw animo on his frog. He released the hercules beetle, zapping it with his red ray to cause it to mutate into something that looked exactly like the insect mode of the insecticons. He then zapped the hamster Miko was looking at, causing it to grow to the size of Wildmutt, who was about as big as an average horse. It grew three new eyes on each side of its head. It now had more teeth and two sabre tooth tiger esque teeth that were on its bottom jaw.

"Arise to your full potential my pets!" Animo shouted triumphantly as he zapped the cockatiel. It didn't change as much. Its only major change was that it grew to the size of a small airplane.

"Behold the genius of Doctor Animo." He said while bowing. "Nothing can stop me from getting what I deserve! Mark my words! Today I will make history! Or, should I say prehistory!"

"Oh great, another Silas." Miko said. "He thinks he can change the course of history."

"Do not mention his name in my presence child!" He shouted. "Say, why don't I borrow your pet?" He zapped Wildmutt with his mutation ray, but unlike the regular animals, Jack changed differently.

Jack's fur went from orange to red. He grew bony horns along his back. A tail grew with a single spike on the end. His hands became paws as the evolution was completed. Jack found that he could now speak.

"Ultimate Wildmutt!" Jack shouted in a voice that sounded like TFP Starscream if you were to make him growl as he spoke. "Where'd I come up with that?"

The mutant hamster charge at Ultimate Wildmutt. Ultimate Wildmutt used his tail to wound the formerly cute as a button creature, not killing it since it wasn't worth it, but the hamster was wounded none the less.

"An insecticon!" Arcee shouted when she noticed the mutated beetle that attacked Jack, charging at him.

"Sadie that's not an insecticon, that Animo guy made it when he zapped it with his helmet!" Miko said. Arcee's holoform hopped off Ultimate Wildmutt before he attacked the beetle. He clawed at the chitin armor of the car sized bug, causing scratch marks to appear on the surface. But that wasn't piercing the insect so he bit down, causing its green hemolymph* to leak out.

"Ew! Insect blood!" Jack said after tasting it. He then bit off the horn, causing it to bleed to death. "But I gotta admit, the chitin is kinda bit tasty*." Ultimate WIldmutt said.

"You foolish creature!" Animo said as he looked at his dead mutated hercules beetle. "I will show those who laughed at my work!" He hopped onto the mutated cockatiel and flew through one of the skylights. The frog followed him.

"You saved the store!" The store's owner, who was a guy named Regis said. "If there's anything I can do to repay you, anything you want!" Jack, who was still Ultimate Wildmutt, grinned when he thought back to the SH figuart that he saw. "Well, there is one thing..." He said. Ultimate Wildmutt went back to being regular wildmutt, but before he timed out, he ran back to get the SH figuart and ran back.

"W.M. I thought you didn't want a reward." Miko said when she saw the box Jack held in his mouth.

"Is that what you want?" The owner asked. Jack grinned to show that he wanted it. "Okay, let me go take it out of the inventory. He grabbed the figure and went to the back room.

"No time for that, we have a giant parrot to catch." June said.

"Aw man!" Jack said after the Omnitrix timed out. "The one time I'm offered a reward, I can't get it."

"Okay, Arcee, you stay here and get it, since I know how much Jack likes that Kamen Rider show." June said.

On the streets of San Francisco...

The Rust Bucket was driving after the giant parrot, which wasn't hard to lose track of, since it was a large, mutated parrot. They had left the trailer and Arcee's real body at the Mega Mart so that Arcee could get Jack's figure.

Once again, June was driving. Jack sat next to her with a sorta confused look on his face. Raf sat at the table with Miko sitting across from him. Raf was looking up information on this Doctor Animo.

"Ah, just like the good old days working with my dad before I went to medical school!" June said, almost about to reveal too much.

"Um, you said you dad was a plumber, what kind of plumber exactly?" Miko asked.

"Um, ah, a darn good one." June said. She saw her son's confused expression. "What's got you stumped Jack?"

"Why didn't that guy's mutation ray turn Wildmutt into one of those creatures. Its seemed to make him stronger." Jack said.

"I got something!" Raf said. "Five years ago Doctor Aloysius Animo was a promising researcher in veterinary science, but it turned out he was doing all these twisted genetic experiments where he was mutating animals." Raf read from a web page. "And he finally went off the deep end of the deep end when he didn't win this Verities Award, he sorta lost it."

June saw the bird turn and leave her field of vision.

"Drat! We've lost him, he could be anywhere in San Francisco.

"Wait, I think I know where he's going!" Jack spoke up. "The science museum! He might be looking for some new pets to play with after I trashed his pet beetle."

San Francisco science museum...

At the museum, they saw that a wall had been broken down. Jack approached the hole and picked up a feather.

"Some thing tell me we're on the right track." June said. She was impressed with Jack's skills of deduction. "Good thinking Jack."

"Guess even a fry cook can surprise you once in a while." Miko said.

They walked to the paleontology exhibit, they found a piece of cardboard that said Mega Mart Electronics on it. Animo was fiddling with the electronics on his harness. He stood next to what was assumed to be a life sized woolly mammoth.

"You are very persistent! I hate persistent!" Animo said after he noticed that they were there.

"We all know about you and your freakazoid experiments Doctor Animo!" Miko shouted. Jack prepared to transform, cycling through the holograms until he stopped at one that was bald and had four arms. "It's over!"

"Oh, on the contrary, it's only just begun!" He said as he turned to face them. "You see, I only needed a few components to push my work into phase two, the reanimation of dormant cells.

"Um, does this guy come in subtitles?" Miko asked.

"Simply put my japanese opponent, wow, that's the second time in my career I've said that, I shall breathe life into long dormant cells. Breathing life into what was once lifeless. Observe!" He zapped the mammoth causing it to move and walk forward, ready to kill its master's enemies.

"Behold the genius that is Doctor Animo!" He shouted. He then ran off to find more specimens to mutate.

"Jack, transform, now!" June said.

"Okay, I'll deal with proto jumbo, you guys get Animo." Jack slammed down the face of the omnitrix.

His arms got bulkier, as did his whole body. His shoulders go wider. giving him a more muscular look. He grew a second set of arms. His skin turned red and his transformation was complete.

"Four Arms!" Jack shouted with a , glaring at the mammoth that he was going to fight with his four light blue eyes. "Let's wrestle!" Four Arms leaped and grabbed the mammoth's tusks, forcing it over.

June and Miko ran after Animo, turning a corner to find the cockatiel blocking the way. It squawked at them, which had bits of roar mixed in with it. Miko and June stepped back, however, Miko grabbed a spear from a cave man exhibit and spun it around her head. She hit the mutated bird atop the head, hurting it and eliciting a retaliation from it. It lounged at Miko, but the Japanese teen dodge it and struck it on the side of the head, breaking the spear and causing the cockatiel to turn and run away towards Animo.

"Jack and the 'bots aren't the only ones with skills." Miko said triumphantly.

Theys walked to see that Animo was about to zap a T-rex skeleton. He did, but nothing happened.

"Wait, why did I even think that was real? I mean seriously, if it was real, the wire's couldn't support it." Animo noticed the two from earlier. "Say, I wonder what this does to humans?" He shot a beam at them, but Miko and June got out of the way. The beam didn't just hit a wall, no. It bounced off the glass of a display case. bounced off more glass before exited the palenology exhibit and hitting a mirror that sent it to the aviation exhibit. It hit an F-15 that had two strange symbols in its wings.

The plane went from grey to blue with red on the wings. Its nose cone folded up. Its engines separated from each other while its tailfins folded up. The wings folded up. Its thrusters now turned into feet, it stood up. The sides of its engines turned hands and they folded up. It stood upright as the front section of its cockpit folded down, revealing a square shaped head with a grey face. It then walk away from its normal place towards Animo. Its stomping could be heard as it moved.

In the mammoth exhibit, Four Arms was tossed to the wall by the prehistoric pachyderm, however, he heard the stomping and saw the giant robot walk towards Animo.

"Scrap! A decepticon!" Four Arms realized that he didn't have his phone so he couldn't call Arcee. "Gotta deal with Jumbo here first." The Tetramand charged at the mammoth, punching it. he was then sent flying through the air, landing on a dinosaur skeleton, breaking it. "Oh that's it! You are so going down peanuts!" Four Arms got up and ran back at the mammoth. He gon on all sixes and waited for the mammoth to get to him. When it did, he grabbed it by the trunk and spun it around, letting go to send it towards a the wall on the opposite side of the exhibit hall. That seemed to re-kill it. "Oh I think I'm gonna hurl!" Jack suppressed this and ran to rescue his mom and Miko.

Meanwhile, Animo had brought a few smaller dinosaurs back to life, such as a troodon and a oviraptor. His smaller pets were fighting the two normal humans, and the dinos were losing since the dinosaurs were basically zombies and were easy to defeat. However, Animo, Miko, and June felt the ground shake when the robot that was once a plane walked through the doorway.

"A decepticon!" Miko shouted.

"A decepticon?" Animo was confused as he looked for more creatures to bring back to life. He turned around to see the giant robot standing in the room. "One of those things Silas was studying! How did it get here? Wait, what is that?!" He asked as he saw Four Arms tackle the decepticon. "Destroy that creature my pets!" He ordered. He brought three utah raptors and an ornitholesties back to life and the along with the decepticons obeyed him. "Wait, metal titan, come to me!" He ordered. The decepticon obeyed him, dropping Four Arms and walked over to Animo. Four Arms was left to fight the Dinosaurs.

Animo examined the Robot that obeyed his commands.

"Hmm, a metal being with almost instinctual responses to stimuli, just like a life form from earth. It seems Silas was correct. Now, destroy them!" He commanded. The decepticon was about to kill Miko and June, but was shot by a blue laser blast.

"Arcee!" Jack said as he snapped the neck of one of the dinos that attacked him.

"I'd love to stay, but I need to claim the reward I so richly deserve!" He hopped on his bird and flew off, the decepticon following him as well, grabbing Miko before transforming back into a jet then took off after Animo.

"Jack!" June shouted to get Jack's attention. "Go after Miko ."

"Okay." Four Arms twisted the dial on his chest with one of his hands. "Come on Stinkfly!"

Jack went back to being human for a fraction of a nanosecond before this new transformation began. Jack's clothes turned into a black and blue jumpsuit. His face became more feline in structure his body was covered in blue fur as his eyes were covered by something that resembled Wolverine's mask. Three spikes grew on his shins and arms, completing his transformation.

"What? I don't remember seeing this guy." Jack said with a slightly higher pitched voice that sounded like Rob Paulsen as Yakko Warner. "I wonder what he does."

"Jack, we'll test out this guy later, right now this Animo and Thundercracker are getting away!" Arcee said.

"Okay I'm on it!" Jack ran after the mad doctor and his revived cybertronian servant. Jack found that this form had similar powers to XLR8, but was a bit slower.

"Arcee, how did you know the name of that decepticon?" June asked.

"I've seen him before on cybertron. But the thing is, he disappeared a while ago after the Ark and the nemesis fell into the collapsing space bridge and no one's seen him since."

Meanwhile, Jack came to a four way intersection and jumped off of a green muscle car with black racing stripes and landed on the tail fin of the revived decepticon, holding in as hard as he could. Jack used the spikes that were on the sides of his lower arms to get a better grip. He then started making his way towards the cockpit of the jet. Right as Jack was about to get halfway there, the jet transformed again, with Miko still in the cockpit. It grabbed Jack off of its wings and tossed him towards the ground. Jack was falling, and probably wouldn't survive the fall.

"Come on, please give me something that can fly." Jack pleaded. He pressed the dial and he got his wish.

"Chromastone!" Jack announced. "Wait, he can't fly, or can he?" Jack then realized that he had stopped falling. He flew after the two escaping villains.

Chromastone was shot at the decepticon, who was still in robot mode and was not falling because his feet were still thrusters.

"Oh scrap!" Chromastone tried to absorb the energy from the blast, but found that he couldn't.

He was knocked out of the sky and landed in the road, leaving crater.

A blond girl looked into the crater and spoke to him.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, the landing hurt, but I'll live." The crystalsapien said. He stood up and rubbed the back of his head. "Scrap! They're got away!" The girl was looking at the purple crystal creature like he was crazy. "By the way, the name's Chromastone, what's yours?"

"Riley, Riley Anderson."

"Well Riley, is your dad's name Tom?"

"No." Riley started to hum a little jingle, grimacing when she did so. Chromastone could've sworn he saw a flame in her eyes for a second. "Well, I better get going." She said. "Bye Chromastone!"

"Bye Riley!" Chromastone said, smiling. "What a nice girl."

Inside Riley's head...

"A new core memory?" A yellow skinned, blue haired being with a female voice said as a yellow and purple orb that had the footage of Riley speaking with Chromastone in it. It went into a section of the control room that had several other orbs in it. "So it, it seems meeting that Chromastone guy is gonna leave a big impression on Riley. And did you hear him compliment us?!"

{Scoffs} "Like yes, we all heard him Joy." A green skinned girl said.

"Wait, what kind of island is it going to form?" A purple skinned being wearing a sweater vest said. He, a green skinned and green haired being, a red skinned short guy with a square shaped head, a blue skin person that looked depressed, and Joy went to a window in the back of Riley's mind to see what new personality island had formed.

"Hmm, Alien Encounter Island." The red guy said. "How to deal with aliens whether they're friendly or not."

"Guys, I don't think we should tell anyone, they might not believe us." The blue moping person said.

"Well, let's go get a picture!" Joy said.

Back on the outside...

Riley ran back over to Jack, who was still Chromastone. He had managed to climb out of the crater and was sitting at the bus stop, waiting to be picked up.

"Umm, hey, Chromastone, you mind if I take a picture of you?"

"Oh not at all!" Jack said. He stood up and got in a battle pose. Riley then snapped a few pictures of him.

"Thanks!" She said.

"Don't mention it. Oh, if you put those pictures online, don't put them on any conspiracy websites. Somebody might take them down."

"Okay." Riley then walked off.

Chromastone saw the Rust Bucket and Arcee's motorcycle mode drive up.

"Need a lift?" Arcee asked, using her Sadie holoform to do so.

"Yeah!" Jack said. He transformed back into his human form. He got in the Rust Bucket and the two vehicles drove off.

With Miko...

Miko was in the cockpit of the decepticon that was being controlled by Animo. She remembered that she had her cellphone and used it to call the only other friends that could help her in this situation.

"Well, Ratchet said to only contact base in case of an emergency, and I guess being kidnapped by a decepticon and a mad scientist is one." She used speed dial to contact the Autobots. "Ratchet! Are you there?!" Miko shouted.

"Yes, I am, why are you calling me?"

"I'm in a bit of a pinch." Miko replied.

"How so?" Ratchet responded.

"I've been captured by a decepticon. But the thing is, I don't think this one's working for Megatron."

"Are you sure it was a Decepticon, I am not detecting cybertronian lifesigns in that area except for Arcee's."

"Well, this guy named Animo tried to blast Mrs D. and I with this weird mutation ray, but it failed to do so, and it seems that it hit a jet in the museum that was a dead decepticon and now he has that at his command."

"Hmm, strange, Miko, I'm tracking your signal and transmitting the coordinates to Arcee so that Jack can get you out of there."

"Why Jack?" Miko asked.

"Agent Fowler spoke to his superiors about the Omnitrix and Jack's alien forms. Seeing as Jack is working in plain sight, it's okay if the public knows about th-." The call was ended as a clawed hand grabbed the phone and crushed it."

In the Rust Bucket...

Where do you think he's heading?" Raf asked.

"I don't know, but this might shed some light on his motives." June handed Raf the newspaper article that Animo dropped.

"Doctor Kelly accepts Varieties award." Raf read.

"He's gonna pick up his award! We have to stop him!"

"Yeah, but we first have to find Miko first."

"Wait, if I had a cybertronian that I could control, what would you use it for?" Jack asked.

"I'd use it to get rid of people for me!" June said.

Kelly industries...

Doctor Kelly was showing two people his awards as part of a tour.

"And here is my Varieties award. Of course, it was an honor just to be nominated with such a distinguished group of scientists." He said while glancing at the award which looked like a golden beaker.

They heard rumbling and turned to see the humanoid form of the decepticon running towards the windows. It crashed through them while Animo flew in on his mutated cockatiel seconds later.

"Kelly, I believe you have something of mine!" Animo shouted. He hopped off his mutated bird mount and walked over to Doctor Kelly's trophy case. He tossed Kelly out of the way and grabbed what he was looking for. "I'd like to thank the committee for this honor.

Outside...

The Rust Bucket pulled up. Jack exited out of the door and prepared to transform. He selected the hologram of a plant like creature.

"It's hero time!" Jack said. He slammed down the dial and and transformed. His entire body became covered in green plant matter. His head turned black, with red and yellow leaves or petals growing in place of hair. His hands lost a finger as a hole grew in both of his palms. His transformation was complete when the dial appeared on his chest.

"Swampfire!" Jack said with a nasally voice.

"Ah! Two words: Body wash!" Arcee said.

Back inside...

The decepticon was about to shoot Doctor Kelly with its blaster, but that didn't happen because Jack melted it with a fire blast.

"Another one of these monsters!" Animo shouted. "And this one smells awful!"

"Hey, who are you calling a monster?!" Jack shouted. He fired a stream of flame out of his hands at the cockpit, melting it and allowing Miko to escape.

"Thanks J- er I mean Swampfire!" Miko said, trying to keep Jack's secret.

"You're welcome. Now get out of here! I don't care if you want to watch, just go!" Swampfire shouted.

"Don't need to tell me twice, I think I'm Decepticon-ed out for today." She said. She and the three others left, but Doctor Kelly was caught by the bird.

"You annoying weed! Deceptibot, destroy him!" Animo ordered. The decepticon fire its second blaster at Swampfire, causing his arm to fall off.

"Oh for the love of god you have no idea how much that hurts!" A vine connected to his severed limb and connected to the limb, allowing it to reattach itself. "Okay, that was extremely weird."

"Somebody help me!" Doctor Kelly screamed.

"Hey Tweety, let go of the scientist!" Jack somehow controlled a tree that was in the room with them to strike the bird. "Neat!" He ordered some vines to restrain the beast. Now it's just you and me 'con scum!" Jack shouted. He ran at the the Decepticon, jumped and clung onto its chest, and used his free hand to melt part of its face off. He then planted a few seeds in some holes in its armor, which grew into vines that Jack used to rip the decepticon apart. Jack then use a fireball to knock the award out of Animo's hand.

"No!" Animo said in anger as it fell while it was in fire, breaking it.

Swampfire came over and punched animo in the chest, breaking the dial. He also grabbed the helmet Animo wore and broke that as well.

"No! My transmodulator!" When Swampfire broke it, an energy wave was sent out which undid all of the mutations Animo had caused.

"Nighty night!" Swampfire said. He released a gas that caused Animo to fall a sleep.

The following morning...

Animo was being dragged off by the police officers.

"Let me go! I deserve that award!" Animo shouted. He was in handcuffs. "I've got it coming to me! I want it" When he was in the back seat of the police car, he saw Jack walk up and noticed that his watch and eye color match the features of the creatures that foiled his plans. "You! You caused this! Mark my words boy! I'll be back! You haven't seen the last of me!" He shouted.

"We'll see about that Doctor Amino."

"That's Animo!" He yelled as the police car drove off.

Where we started this chapter...

"You were right Silas, allowing Animo to live was entertaining. But he may not be so in the future." One of the shadowy figures said,

"You may be correct, but Animo is determined and will stop at nothing to get what he wants." Silas said. "And if he's made an enemy with one of the Autobots' human allies, we can only hope that he serves as a distraction." Silas noted that the one who Animo made a threat to was Arcee's partner.

"On to other matters." Another one of the shadowy figures said. "Silas, how long until project Chimera is ready for a field test?"

"It will be ready by the end of the week. We are just looking for the proper vehicle to scan. It's not as easy as you would think."

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. I decided to have both Silas and Animo know of each other and have both of their operations being funded by the Forever Knights because who else would hire those two? And if you noticed I had Animo say deceptibot and energin, instead of decepticon and energon because he's never heard them used before. And yes, those flaws in Transformers biology are things that I have noticed about them across all continuities. And if you wanted to know: hemolymph is the fluid that invertebrate(arthropods and mollusks) have that is the equivalent of blood. And when Jack(as Ultimate Wildmutt) said that the chitin was tasty, chitin is basically a form of sugar, so it would make sense that a vulpimancer or other aliens would find it edible.


	3. From Earth

Location: Classified...

Agent Fowler was leaving a military base in his toyota corolla. He stopped at the gate where the guard saluted him.

"At ease soldier." Fowler said upon returning the salute.

Fowler started heading down the empty desert road. But it isn't as empty as he first though.

The sound of air brakes hissing could be heard in the distance.

Fowler turned on his car's radio and the song known as The Touch was heard.(No seriously, in the original episode, that 's the song Fowler was listening to.) Fowler started humming.

Suddenly, a truck that was following Fowler turned on its high beams.

"Go around, you jerk!" Fowler shouted. The semi truck that was following Fowler hit his car's rear bumper, causing it to speed out of control. "That's no road rage. Someone's trying to bump me off." As the truck drove up to him, its high beams on full blast, Fowler noticed something on the front. The autobot insignia. "Prime?" As 'Optimus' got closer, Fowler restarted the engines and backed up, turned around and drove properly as fast as he could. "Prime, hace you flipped your metal wig?!" Fowler shouted, not expecting 'Optimus' to hear him.

Autobot Outpost Omega-1...

Three RC cars raced through the ground bridge frame, one yellow, one red with white flame decals on the front, and one that was black and had a blue circuitry pattern on it along with the Omnitrix dial on the top of it. The yellow car and the black car were tied, but the yellow car was gaining the lead. Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee watched as Miko and Raf controled their cars while Jack actually was his car.

"Yes!" Miko shouted joyfully.

"Metal to the pedal Miko!" The green Wrecker known as Bulkhead cheered on.

"Go. Jack, go!" Arcee shouted.

"No way! Raf's scorching us! And Jack has the Omnitrix and he turned into that circuit guy!"

"Miko, the name's Upgrade!" Jack said, doing a loop around Miko's legs, his voice sounding more electronic, but was still his own.

A beeping was heard.

"Prime!" The voice of Agent Fowler shouted. "Do you read me?"

"I'm sorry Agent Fowler." Ratchet said. "Optimus isn't here at the moment."

"Then I'll take that as a confirmation that he's presently trying to run me off the road!"

"Agent Fowler, that highly seems likely!"

"Well, tell that to my burning treads!"

"We got to, and I can't believe I'm saying this," Arcee said, dumbfounded by what she was saying. "stop Optimus."

"Jack, if this is true, the others will need all the help they can get, I suggest using you Tetramand form." Ratchet said as he put in the coordinates into the ground bridge.

"Who?" Jack looked through the Omnitrix for 'Tetramand' but could't find anything.

"He means Four Arms." Raf said. Miko and Jack looked at him like he just said gibberish. "What? I looked in one of Ratchet's textbooks on sentient species from the Milky Way. Its pretty cool, but it's written in cybertronian."

"Thanks for the clarification Raf." Jack said. He selected the Four Arms hologram and slammed it down.

Jack's body was covered by bluish green crystals. He got bulkier. His eyes became entirely light blue. Two crystal door wing like structures grew out of his back. His transformation was complete.

"Diamondhead!" Jack said with a deeper voice that sounded more grand and noble. "Ah shards!" Jack said in disappointment. "Can't you give me what I want more often."

"Well, a petrosapien might also work." Ratchet said as he opened the ground bridge. The Autobots transformed into their vehicle modes and Diamondhead, unable to properly fit onto Arcee, hopped on Bulkhead's roof. They drove through the ground bridge

At the Bridge...

The Autobots and Diamondhead saw 'Optimus' in his truck mode about to push Fowler, who was still in his car over the bridge. Bumblebee drove over there as fast as he could. He transformed into robot mode and grabbed Fowler's car by the fender. Bumblebee was holding onto the bridge.

Bulkhead and Arcee drove up. Diamondhead hopped off of Bulkhead and the two Autobots transformed.

"Looks like Optimus." Bulkhead said.

"But he, or it doesn't act like Optimus." Diamond head said. He flung a crystal shard at the retreating truck.

"You're right Jack. Primes don't run." Arcee transformed and drove after the semi truck.

"Arcee, wait up!" Jack said. "Let's try, XLR8." Jack tapped the dial on his chest.

"Fast Track! Dammit!" He ran after Arcee.

Bulkhead tried to help Bumblebee get Fowler up, but the connections keeping the fender on the car gave way and Fowler fell. Bulkhead jumper down and caught the car before it could reach the bottom.

"You alright in there?" Bulkhead asked.

Fowler breathed a sigh of relief. "At ease soldier." The airbags went off.

With Arcee and Jack...

Arcee drove to an abandoned gas station, Fast Track running beside her at a light jog.

She used her headlights to search for the imposter Optimus.

"Jack, check behind here." Arcee said.

"Got it partner." Fastrack said. He ran to the back side of the gas station and didn't find anything.

Arcee heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. She turned to see the Imposter drive towards her. Arcee couldn't react fast enough, and neither could Jack. Arcee was hit by the truck before it drove off.

"No!" Jack ran over to where his partner was. She was forced into robot mode and lie both unconscious and bleeding. "Please Omnitrix, give me something that can help her!" Jack pleaded. "I've gotta at least stabilize her." Jack tapped the dial again. "Big Chill!" Big Chill then exhaled on Arcee's wounds, freezing the Energon much like how you would use fire to cauterise the wounds on a human. Big Chill's face clearly showed that he was worried, with a frown and tears of liquid nitrogen dripping down his face.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee drove up to see that Arcee was injured, and that Jack was worried for her safety.

"Ratchet, we need a ground bridge, and prep the CR chamber, Arcee's hurt."

Bumblebee walked over to pick up Arcee and carry her through the portal, but Jack, still a Necrofriggian, hissed at the Autobot scout defensively, causing the yellow scout to stumble back.

"Easy little Jackie." Bulkhead said as he approached Big Chill cautiously. "We just want to get Arcee back to base so the doc bot can fix her."

Later, at the base...

Ratchet help a light in front of Arcee's face as she opened her optics.

"Yes, that's it. Follow the light." Arcee closed her optics but then realized what the medic had said.

"Wait. What?!" Arcee panicked. She stumbled out of the CR chamber, Bumblebee supporting her. She noticed a chunk of ice on her thigh. "What's this?"

"That would be Jack's doing." Ratchet said. "Had he not been there, there would've been a possibility of you dying on us."

"Arcee, are you alright?" Jack asked.

"Sure." She tried to pull the ice off, but it was stuck there. "Except for being blind sided by Optimus."

"Didn't I tell you?"

"Impossible." ratchet scoffed.

"I'm only reporting what I saw." Arcee said.

"Why would Optimus try to knock off Agent Fowler" Jack asked.

"Maybe Optimus believes he's a decepticon all over again." Raf said nervously.

"Or he's been faking being a good guy all this time." Miko suggested.

"If Prime has gone off the rails for any reason, we have a serious problem."

"This is absurd." Ratchet said. He walked over to one of the monitors. "A quick check for Optimus's signal will reveal that he's nowhere near the location of tonight's incident." Ratchet typed in something on the keyboard. "In fact, he's just returning now."

"Hey Jack, mind helping me get this 'band aid' off?" Arcee asked, referring to the ice that was on her.

"Sure thing." Jack selected one of his two flame based aliens. "Heatblast!" Jack announced after he was engulfed in a flash of blue light. "Now hold still." Heatblast then fired a stream of flames at Arcee's thigh, melting the ice, and getting a strange reaction from Arcee.

"Ahhhhh!" Arcee pleasurably moaned. "That feels amazing."

"O-kay. That was strange." Heatblast said. He had the look one only has when the accidentally walk in on their parents doing it. He quickly suppressed the memory of what just happened.

The sound of Optimus' engine was heard approaching them . When the red and blue semi truck entered the main room of the base, the truck transformed into Optimus.

"Is something wrong?" Optimus asked his subordinates. "We were just... wondering where you've been."

"We haven't been able to reach you." Bulkhead said with a face of unease.

"I have been outside of our communication range..." Optimus reached to grab something.

The three autobots that were assigned to protect the kids readied their weapons. Heatblast produced a fireball in each hand. Fowler covered Miko and Raf.

"Woah!"  
"Easy."

"...in a subterranean energon deposit." Optimus showed them a blue energon crystal.

"Come on, it's our guy." Miko said. "Can't you tell?" The autobots retracted their weapons and Heatblast extinguished the fireballs in his hands.

"We're... Sorry." Arcee said. She walked up to Optimus.

Optimus looked at them with an expression that subtly said only this: 'huh?'

"Don't blame them Prime, I was attacked earlier tonight out on the open highway by a big rig, one that bore a striking resemblance to you."

"Yeah, and it almost snuffed Arcee."

"Was Ratchet able to get to her in time?" Optimus questioned.

"No." Optimus had a look of confusion. "It was Jack who stabilized her."

"How? His Galvanic Mechamorph form lacks the ability to repair, it can only improve."

"Jack didn't use Upgrade." Bulkhead answered. "He used Big Chill to stop the bleeding. and then for some reason he hissed at 'bee."

"Necrofriggians don't normally exhibit that kind of behavior." Ratchet said.

Fowler's phone started to ring.

"This is Fowler." He answered. "What?! That's not possible."

"I can tell you sure as there are 50 stars on my star spangled shorts it isn't him." Fowler responded. "No it's not him either." Fowler hung up. "Alden military base is under attack by Optimus Prime."

"The truck?" Heatblast asked.

"The 'bot." Everyone looked at Optimus.

"You said something about someone else. Who else could it have been?" Miko asked.

"I'll give you a hint. He's sixteen and currently is on fire."

"What me?" Heatblast asked. "There's no cybertronian DNA, or whatever you guys have in the Omnitrix. That or it's locked." He said.

"Nevertheless, we must stop this imposter." Optimus said. "Ratchet ready the ground bridge." The portal opened after the medic typed in the coordinates for Alden military base. The Autobots and Jack still Heatblast ran through it.

Alden military base...

Team Prime exited the vortex prepared to fight. The saw the bootleg Optimus Prime transform and drive away.

Several helicopters flew by.

"There! They brought reinforcements! Resume fire!" They started shooting at them. The helicopters launch missiles.

"Heatblast, like we practiced." Arcee said, calling Jack by his alien form name, not wanting to reveal Jack's secret identity.

"Got it!" The Pyronite said. He threw several fireballs at the missiles, melting them before they could hit the Autobots, but he couldn't stop all the missiles, as one hit in front of team Prime

"Autobots, return to base." Optimus said as the rest of team prime prepared for battle. "We must not inflict human casualties. They ran back through the ground bridge vortex as the helicopters used their machine guns on them. Heatblast flung a fireball at the lead helicopter before he entered the vortex, melting the barrel of its gun, causing it to be unusable. That helicopter fired a missile at Jack in retaliation, Jack then hightailed it out of there.

Later, Autobot base...

"No General Bryce. Optimus Prime did not attack our boys." Fowler said, trying to keep his cool. "Because I was with Prime when I received the alert." Fowler spoke. "Yes sir. The Autobots were at your base, but only in response to the initial attack. Jack's involvement? He might have attacked military equipment, but that was in self defence." Jack looked at agent Fowler angrily. "But, sir, Y- yes, sir. I understand." Fowler hung up.

"So, what's the damage?" Jack asked. "And how much is my mom going to have to pay?"

"Nothing money wise, you only destroyed one machine gun barrel." Fowler then sighed. "But as for the 'bots, all military personnel are under strict orders to destroy any and all bots on sight." Fowler said.

"Are you serious?!" Jack said, unable to comprehend what he heard.

"But th-there innocent." Raf stuttered.

"Optimus was framed!" Miko shouted.

"Though unfortunate, the military order changes nothing. Our imposter clearly poses a grave threat to humanity." Optimus stoically said.

"A thirty foot tall transforming imposter." Fowler said. "Wait, you don't think..."

"They actually did it." Ratchet said, realising who Fowler was implying. "Those butchers managed to crack the code!"

"MECH." Optimus nearly growled.

MECH base; Exact location unknown...

In front of a blue moniter sat Silas. He was in a chair with multiple levers and joysticks. He appeared to be controlling something that was heading down a corridor. The vehicle mode of the Optimus Prime duplicate entered the room. Silas pulled a lever and the truck transformed into robot mode, which looked exactly like Optimus except it was maroon and gunmetal grey and had yellow optics.

A man wearing murky green leather armor that covered his entire body walked up to Silas.

"Sir, any parallax or latency issues?"

"The telepresence interface performed flawlessly" Silas stood up from his control chair. "In both vehicular and robot mode."

"Should I share this information with the group funding our operations?"

"Yes, please do. I want them to know that it was the better decision to choose us over Animo." Silas replied.

Back at the autobot base...

"MECH abducted Breakdown, and by all indications deconstructed him from cranial chamber to heel strut." Ratchet said, explaining how he came to this conclusion.

"I was there." Bulkhead remembered seeing Breakdown's dissection.

"And we know that, more recently, they obtained Starscream's T-Cog." Optimus said.

"Which apparently they installed in a knockoff of you." Arcee added.

"Which in turn, scanned an appropriate vehicle form."

"Fill the tank with energon..." Jack said.

"And say hello to Nemesis Prime." Miko finished.

"So where do we start?" Fowler asked. "MECH's base could be anywhere."

"Not necessarily." Optimus answered. "While MECH may have learned much of our biology..."

"They haven't necessarily absorbed information about our technology." Ratchet said. He turned to input something into a computer. "Without access to a ground bridge, Nemesis Prime would rely solely on his vehicle mode for transportation."

"So, chances are the MECH base is within driving distance of both incidents."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Fowler asked. "Let's get out there and mash MECH's little science project." Fowler was showing his eagerness to get pay back.

"Agent Fowler, I do not think it it advisable to put yourself in harm's way of MECH's robot again." Optimus cautioned the agent, telling him to cool his jets.

"Well, I'm not sure it;s advisable for you 'bots to be running recon with the military out there gunning for you."

"We will maintain vehicular cover until absolutely necessary."

Fowler gared at Optimus.

"Optimus," Jack got the Autobot leader's attention. "would it be okay if I helped out?"

"Jackson, even with the Omnitrix, you will still be at risk of being injured or worse."

"I did fight a mammoth a few days ago. And a decepticon to boot."

"We were all told of your exploits by Miko." Ratchet said. "Fighting undead organic lifeforms and a reanimated decepticon is not the same as going against Silas' pet project, which is a copy of Optimus."

"Yeah, more like an imperfect clone." Jack said.

"What are you getting at?" Fowler questioned.

"It doesn't have the matrix in it."

"Yeah, you're right." Arcee said. "But then why are we calling it Nemesis Prime?"

"Because Nemesis Pax doesn't sound as cool." Miko said.

"I do not understand how its name affects the relative temperature." Optimus questioned

"Its an expression." Miko explained. "It sounds better when you call it Nemesis Prime."

"But what ever designation we are giving it, why are you offering to help?" Optimus asked. "Not that your desire to assist is unwelcomed, I appreciate your offer."

"Silas hurt my partner, I think I owe him a little Babylonian style justice." Jack said with a glare in his eyes.

"Hey, um, I didn't want to be rude while you guys were talking, but why did you say Jack instead of the alien when talking about the attack?" Raf asked.

"When we recovered the probe that Jack destroyed a week ago, I had to tell my superiors about what destroyed it."

"And you told them about the Omnitrix?" Jack asked. "Why?"

"Jack, when it comes to that watch, there are forces at work that are beyond your understanding at play. There are people in high places."

"Like what?"

"The full details I am not at liberty to disclose to you. Let's just say that if knowledge of the autobots were to get out, this operation would no longer be part of US affairs."

"But why hasn't Jack been kidnapped and taken to area 51 or something like that so they can rip open the watch and find figure out its secrets?" Miko asked.

"Once again, I can't tell you." Fowler said. "But what I can tell you is that if that were to happen, we would most likely be dealing with a court case that no lawyer on earth could win."

Later, in various locations...

Bulkhead drove through the empty desert.

"Nothing but tumbleweeds."

Arcee drove down the highway.

"Just a whole lot of empty." Arcee commed.

Jack, as XLR8 ran through a canyon.

"I found a few footprints, but nothing resembling Optimus'." XLR8 reported in by holding down the dial on his chest.

Bumblebee drove over a hill to see a refinery.

"I think I found something." Bumblebee whirred.

"Bumblebee, proceed with utmost caution. Reconnaissance only." Optimus commed as he drove down the empty country road. "We will rendezvous at your coordinates."

Bumblebee drove through an opening in the fence that surrounded the place.

In MECH's base of operations...

An alarmed beeped. Silas saw Bumblebee on a monitor.

"The autobots are persistent." Silas said. "Time for them to meet their match." He pressed a button on one of the joysticks on his chair and activated Nemesis Prime.

The bootleg Optimus' optics glowed their sickly yellow as it twitched.

Outside...

Bumblebee transformed into his robot mode and started looking around.

"Bumblebee." Optimus, or what Bumblebee thought was Optimus said. Bumblebee turned around to see the silhouette of Optimus approach him in the shadows, yellow optics glowing. The yellow scout readied his double barreled blasters and trained them on the figure. "Be on your guard. My double could be anywhere."

"Will do sir, it's just that I'm a bit on edge, what with MECH being behind this." Bumblebee buzzed.

"I'm sorry. What?" Nemesis Prime said. Bumblebee glared daggers at the imposter when it failed to understand him. Bumblebee started firing at him.

Nemesis Prime ran up and threw a punch at the yellow scout, which he ducked to avoid. Bumblebee then started to punch bootleg Prime, which had no effect on him. Bumblebee was then front kicked, sending him back in an arching pattern.

Later...

Optimus, Arcee, Bulkhead, and Jack, who was now in human form after the Omnitrix timed out, had arrived at the refinery.

"Bumblebee" Optimus commed. "Do you read?" All they got was static.

"Fan out?" Arcee suggested. They deployed their blasters and prepared to attack. Jack tried to activate the Omnitrix, but it was recharging.

"And beware of anything that might resemble me." Optimus said as they split up.

Arcee walked in an area with multiple silos. She was on edge, looking every where and keeping her gun trained in front of her.

Bulkhead was near some processing machines as he was unaware that Nemesis Prime was stalking him. He then looked behind him and didn't see anything. He was then body slammed by the false Optimus a moment later, being forced in between four of the silos where the green wrecker was forced to do battle with the impostor. Bulkhead was punched in the face, which he returned with a blow from his mace arm. That trading of blows continued for a while, until Nemesis Prime got the upper hand and knocked Bulkhead out.

Jack climbed up one of the ladders to get a better view of the place. He heard a banging sound, but just passed that off as Bulkhead being a klutz. He saw Arcee walk below him. She got against the wall and Jack noticed the Nemesis Prime was approaching her from behind.

"Come on Omnitrix, are you recharged?" Jack said. The hourglass on the dial was very light purple, almost blue, but not quite.

He heard the sound of a weapon charging and he knew Arcee heard it as well.

Back at the Autobot base...

Ratchet was working on the monitors as he was watched by Miko, Raf, and Fowler.

"If I can isolate the control frequency of the remote link Silas is employing, I should be able to pinpoint his exact position."

"Remote link?" Raf asked.

"You didn't think MECH possessed the ability to build a completely autonomous robot, did you?"

"I was hoping Silas was operating the 'bot from inside because one punch from Bulkhead or Four Arms, and booyah!" Miko excitedly said. "Aah!" Miko imitated someone falling.

"Aha!" Ratchet said after hearing a beep. "Frequency isolated."

"Then reopen that bridge." Fowler pointed at the ground bridge arch.

Ratchet looked up at Fowler. "Agent Fowler, did you not hear Optimus advice against your involvement?" Ratchet asked. "It's for you own safety."

"Look, doc, I don't plan on dancing with any 'bots, but there's a human element in play here, and incase you haven't noticed, I happen to be a highly trained, government-grade human."

"Yeah, and Silas tried to run him off the road. It's personal."

Back at the refinery...

Optimus deployed his blaster as he walked around a corner and came face to face with Nemesis Prime.

"Optimus Prime. We meet again." Nemesis Prime said, no longer imitating Optimus' voice, but using Silas' own.

"The deception ends here, Silas." Optimus charged up a shot with his blaster.

"Does it? Seems that despite what I've heard, you seem to like bringing your human friends into this." Nemesis Prime deployed his blaster and charged at Optimus, firing at him. "Isn't that right, Jack?" Optimus, while dodging Silas's blaster shots, noticed Jack on the roof of the building that Nemesis Prime stood behind.

"Jack, stay there until I tell you." Optimus said to Jack after getting closer to him. Nemesis Prime punched Optimus in the face, knocking one of Optimus' antennas off. "Disregard what I said previously. Transform now Jack." Optimus commanded.

"I'm more than happy to obliged." Jack said. He selected a hologram of a humanoid reptile. He slammed it down.

Jack's shoulders got wider. His head became more lizard like, but still retained it's human characteristics. His body as a whole became bulkier until his limbs were a thick as tree trunks, his skin getting covered with scales. He grew a tail and his transformation was complete.

"Humungousaur!" He said with a voice that just sounded big. He jumped off of the building and ran up to the dueling Optimus and Nemesis. He punched Nemesis Prime in the thigh, allowing Optimus to land an uppercut that sent the impostor prime back.

"It seems I need to adjust my strategy. No matter." He fired at both the Vaxasaurian and the cybertronian.

Elsewhere...

Agent Fowler exited the ground bridge vortex, nauseous from the experience.

"I think I'm gonna toss that breakfast I ate back in flight school. He looked to his left and saw Optimus tossed against the side of one of the Silos and then a second later, Humungousaur.

Humungousaur may be tough, but not as tough as a cybertronian, so when Nemesis Prime attacked Optimus, he was disorientated and unable to aid in the fight. Jack recovered from the blow and concentrated and went from being twelve feet tall to almost sixty feet. His shoulders and forearms gained what looked like armor that would be on a knight. Along his spine there were bony extrusions that resembled the plates on a stegosaurus, only these seemed to be just for decoration. His tail then grew four black spikes. He punched Nemesis Prime in the chest, allowing Optimus to recover.

"Thanks for the assist Jack." Optimus said.

"You're welcome. Now, let's deal with this punk."

"Your friends are full of tricks, Optimus. The question is, how many more does this one have?" Silas said as Nemesis Prime ran at the two with it's swords deployed.

Fowler's phone started to ring. He answered it.

"Agent Fowler, the control frequency is transmitting from a structure one hundred meters due north." Ratchet said.

"Copy that." Fowler said before hanging up.

Optimus and Nemesis were dueling with their swords. The real Prime was sent back and Humungousaur, getting his chest slashed, decided to try a less direct approach.

Fowler meanwhile climbed up one of the Silos and punched a guy in the head, knocking him out for a while. He then climbed down a ladder and found Silas sitting on the control chair.

"My robot chassis possesses all of your strength, speed, and firepower." Nemesis ran up to Optimus, rapidly punching his chest about a dozen time, side kicked him back, then blasted him. "Add my extensive combat training, and MECH has achieved the perfect combination of man and machine." Silas gloated as Fowler took out the guards.

From Silas' view screen, parts of Optimus were highlighted, which were where Silas made Nemesis punch. Out of nowhere however, something hit the face of Nemesis Prime, sending it back the view screen was showing smoke.

Humungousaur, having left Silas' field of view, grabbed a steel girder and used it like a club to knock Nemesis Prime into a silo that was filled with something explosive.

"Clever boy." Silas said as Nemesis Prime walked out of the Smoke. "That might have worked on natural transformers, but there is one key difference between Optimus and myself, that being it feels no pain, and thus, can't be stopped by using methods that cause pain. Project Chimera has been a complete success, but maybe we can improve upon it with that watch that you have."

Optimus fired at Nemesis Prime. Humungousaur, after squeezing the girder that he used as a club to a point, through it a the impostor like a spear. Silas climbed up the Silo as Optimus and the human turned Vaxasaurian followed him. Unknown to either of them, Silas had Nemesis Prime grab the sharpened girder that Jack used.

When they got to the top, Optimus dueled with Silas as Jack tried to think up a plan.

"And speaking of pain, let's see what happen when I do this." He stabbed Optimus in the chest, not in the spark, as that wouldn't be as painful but near where a human's lung would be.

"Gah!" Optimus exclaimed.

"This is just the beginning." Silas triumphantly spoke. "Imagine an army of transforming robots. No one will stand against the newly rebooted MECH." Nemesis Prime raised his sword, preparing to finish off Optimus.

"Seen it. It's been done before. Doctor Morocco did it before you. And without knowledge of cybertronian." Optimus groaned. "They weren't tough. It only took two autobots to defeat his army, and that was without firing a single shot on our part."

"Doctor Morocco! That victorian clown! How is that possible!"

Nemesis Prime was tackled to the ground.

"You talk too much." Humungousaur said.

"Thanks for the distraction you two." They heard Agent Fowler say, but it sounded like he was some distance away.

In the silo...

"Agent Fowler..." Silas said as he stood up out of his chair. "In the flesh."

"Now I'm gonna pull the plug on your little video game!"

Back outside...

Optimus was leaking energon from the stab wound.

"Optimus, please let me see what I can do about that." Jack said, trying to move Optimus' hand off of the wound. Optimus compiled and moved his hand. "Hmm, can't remove the metal here without causing more damage. I can however, stop the bleeding." Jack turned the dial and pressed it down. "Big Chill! Hold still. This might be a bit nippy." Big Chill took a deep breath and exhaled his supercooled breath onto Optimus, freezing the energon.

"Thank you Jack. Now, before Fowler is defeated, we must think of away to defeat 'Nemesis Prime'."

"Optimus, hope you don't mind the cold." Jack extended his wings and flew around the top of the Silo, freezing all the water in the gaps in the metal and in the air around it, turning it into ice. He then turned intangible and flew down through the ice to get Fowler.

"What the heck is this thing?!" Silas asked as he saw Big Chill pick up Fowler with his feet.

"The guy who gets the distraction out of here."

"Wait. This was a diversion? Oh no!" Silas ran back to the chair as Fowler and Big Chill flew through an opening in the ceiling. He tried to fight Optimus, but the Prime was nowhere insight. He took one step forward and Silas instantly regretted doing that.

"Man I hate that kid." Silas said before Nemesis Prime broke through the ice and crushed its controller.

The sound of helicopters approaching was heard.

"That would be our boys." Fowler said. "I'd advise you to get back to base, Prime, I'll deal with Uncle Sam." Fowler said.

The next morning, Autobot Outpost Omega-1...

"So how weird was it seeing someone who looked exactly like Optimus kicking the scrap out of you?" Miko asked Bulkhead.

"It's a sight I won't soon forget." Arcee said.

Ratchet was patching up Optimus' wound after Jack, who was currently Heatblast, melted the ice, allowing Ratchet to remove the metal. Jack then reverted back to human form and held an icepack on his head.

"The question remains, will MECH continue to function as we know it, without its leader?" Optimus asked as Ratchet finished the repairs.

"Well, here's the kicker." Fowler said via a video conversation. "We sifted through the wreckage with a fine toothed comb and couldn't find one trace of Silas."

"Hey Fowler, are there any ghost towns between here and Chicago?" Jack asked.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I think I need some practice as some of these guys. And it's best to do it where there's no one to injure, and so that we don't have to use up too much time on the road trip my mom's been planning for awhile."

"Fair enough. Would love to chat some more, but I have a meeting with general Bryce." Fowler ended the call.

"Arcee, how long did my mom say she would be visiting her Aunt?"

"Why do you ask?"

"If I'm gonna break things, I might as well have parental supervision."

In space...

Vilgax, the tyrant who tried to claim the Omnitrix was still unable to move, but he showed signs of recovering.

"Sir, the offer that you sent out has been answered by three bounty hunters, all of which you have employed before." One of the drones said as its master was being repaired.

"Excelent, prepare the trial."


	4. Hunter and Hunted

Location: Above Earth...(Nobody who watches the sky for a living is doing their job)

The ship that had tried to claim the Omnitrix had been repair and was now just flying around.

Inside, three warriors; one who wore black and dark magenta armor, another who had armor that was different shades of yellow, and one that word black and grey armor stood beside each other in a line.

"Begin the audition." The voice of the owner of the ship, who sounded like Starscream, said.

The first warrior took off with his jet pack. When he landed he was surrounded by hover drones that were identical to the ones that were destroyed by Jack. He grabbed a gun out of one of the compartments on his armor and fired at the drones. He destroyed a few before the robots returned fire. He dodged their shots and then used a missile launcher that had four projectiles to destroy one of the drones. He then grabbed what seemed to be a grenade out of another compartment in his armor and threw it at one of the drone that was in the air. It exploded, taking out several of them.

The one who had yellow armor and what seemed to be crab legs jumped off of the platform he and the final applicant were on. He landed one of the drones, crushing it with his oversized left arm. He then grabbed another drone and threw it at one that was to the left of the crab. He saw a drone fly towards him and he caught the drone, crushing it with his crab arm. He then sliced an incoming drone with a sword that was sheathed on his back.

The two of them looked up to see a compartment on the ceiling open up to allow one of the large three legged drones to drop out of it. The final warrior stepped on what seemed to be a light green skate board with black corners. He used it to fly into the path of the tripod's blast, taking no visible damage. He flew into the robot and destroyed it. He jumped off his hoverboard before it folded up into a more compact size.

"Impressive." The tyrant said, his face appearing on a viewscreen. "You are all hired. Your objective: Retrieve the Omnitrix." An image of the super watch that Jack wore was on the screen. "The one who succeeds collects the reward. Do not disappoint me."

Three pods were launched out of the ship.

In the bridge...

"Sire," One of the drones said. "We have picked up signal from the planet below."

"What is the source?"

"An mercenary you hired in the past."

"Be more specific." He said. "What species is he?"

"It is a she, sir. And as for her species, she's a humanoid cybertronian."

"Ah, Airachnid. Put her through."

The face of a decepticon that resembled Maleficent appeared on a screen.

"Vilgax, long time no see." The decepticon said.

"Airachnid, why do you contact me? You failed to show up for the application process."

"I am aware of the trial by fire you put you hitmen through. But it's not me who wants to speak with you. That would be my superior, Megatron."

"Put him through." Vilgax ordered.

"He would like to speak to you in person."

"As much as I would like to speak with Megatron, the only being who comes close to having the reputation that I have, I am unable to leave my ship. What does he want to discuss?"

"The Omnitrix. And before you pop a gasket, no, he does not want the Omnitrix. He will discuss the full details about it." Airachnid said. "However, Soundwave has detected the Omnitrix signal near that of an autobot, is that correct?"

"It is. An autobot you have encountered before, and have tried to kill at every turn."

"Arcee. Her someone close to her partner must have it. Vilgax, I will join you hunters, and I request no payment, because Arcee's suffering will be payment enough after I use her partner's friend against her."

"Very well. Do not fail me. I have the most faith in your abilities, Decepticon second in command."

On Earth...

Arcee and June were setting up an obstacle course for Jack to practice using the powers of the Omnitrix. It was made out of a combination of wood boards, metal pipes, soda cans, rope, cybertronian steel targets, and sensors which were connected to Raf's computer, the owner of which was sitting at a desk that was set up inside the Rust Bucket.

"You ready?" June asked as she and Arcee finished building.

Jack stood with his back facing them and activated the Omnitrix. He selected an alien that looked like he was made out of legos.

Jack's body became more angular. He adopted a gorilla like stance as parts of his body were either red, blue, or yellow. His jaw grew into an underbite, adopting an TFA Bulkhead styled head.

"I'm made out of legos?" Jack said. Whenever he moved, the sound of a large pile of plastic bricks being moved around was heard. "I'll call this one, Bloxx!"

"But what can that one do?" Arcee asked. "Besides be painful to step on, that is."

"Let's find out."

June pulled a lever, flinging several soda cans at Jack. Jack turned his head around one hundred and eighty degrees. He saw the incoming potential dimes* and turned his hand into a shield, blocking the. Arcee yanked on a rope and several targets descended. A string of bricks went from his back to his right arm as he turned it into a launcher. He fired them at the targets. The brick, now looking like 1x1 cones stuck in the targets. Some more cans came at Jack and he shot those too. He then fired at a cactus that had a crudely drawn picture of Megatron on it. Some wooden targets popped up and Jack shot at those as well. He held the barrel of the launcher up to his face and blew on it as if it were the smoking barrel of a gun.

Miko was applying sunscreen as she watched this.

"Show off." Miko jealously said. Jack looked at Miko and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Jack, keep you attention at the real threat!" Arcee said.

"Don't worry 'cee, I got this." Jack said after several cans flew by him. He shot those cans. However, he failed to notice a large tire flying at him in his direction.

"Oh this is going to hurt." Jack said moments before he was struck. His body was broken apart and during the flaying, his launcher arm fired several cones at the RV.

"Ah!" Miko screamed as she hid underneath a table. The projectiles pierced the sides of the RV and the bottle of sunscreen Miko was using, knocking it over and causing it to spill onto her hair.

"Heh heh. Whoops." Jack said after he reassembled himself.

Later, in the Rust Bucket...

"You brick head! You almost turned me into swiss cheese!" Miko complained.

"Miko, how many times do I have to say 'I'm sorry'?" Jack asked.

"Um, hows about you let me use it."

"Sure thing." Miko looked at Jack with glee. "If I could get it off and I knew you wouldn't do something to put us in danger."

"When have I even hinted at something like that?"

"When we left the base to continue on our trip, you said you would've used it to turn into Upgrade and make Ratchet's personality different." June said.

"Or wanting to race Vince as XLR8." Raf said.

"What about saying you wanted to pound in Breakdown's face as Humungousaur?" Arcee added.

"And what did you think I should use the watch for?" Jack asked. "Oh, I remember, become super famous."

"Okay. I've had a few bad ideas. But what's so wrong with beating Vince in a race? Or helping out the 'bots? Or becoming a celebrity? Or- okay, I can't justify the first one."

"It would be cheating if you were to use the Omnitrix to race Vince. As for helping the bots, Jack fought against Nemesis Prime a few days ago and got injured." June said.

"And as for the fame, do you know why fame would be a bad thing for any of us right now?" Arcee asked.

"The Paparazzi would hound us and eventually find out about the 'bots, allowing the 'cons to find the base easier." Jack said, answering for Miko. "And do I even need to mention TMZ?"

"You don't."

"Basicly Miko, what we're trying to explain is that the Omnitrix is not a toy. You have to think before using it, and that is not one of your strong suits." June said. "And using it for your own amusement would add to the list of times that you leaped before looking." June added. "I think you should be glad that Jack found it."

"But Jack used it to save those people from the burning building, and stop Animo, and race RC cars as Upgrade, and fly around as Big Chill, and, as Raf found out, you showed off to a 'Chromastonefan#1' I saw the picture before Raf removed it."

"It may not be a toy, but who's to say that I can't have a bit of fun once in a while. Wait. You removed the picture? What picture?"

"This." Miko showed Jack the image of Chromastone that Riley took a week ago that she had posted on a website.

"What did you do that for?" Jack asked.

"Ratchet said to remove all confirmed evidence of aliens."

"But why did you take down the picture I let Riley take of me?"

"It was on one of those conspiracy websites. That wasn't where the picture was from, somebody put it there. I just removed all traces of it." Raf said. "And who's Riley?"

"A girl, about your age Raf, that I met in San Francisco as Chromastone. She wanted to take a picture of me as proof that I was real and not some imaginary friend, so I let her take some pictures of me. I also told her to not put it on conspiracy websites because you might take it down."

"Whoops. If it's any consolation, I still have it on my computer. I was actually planning on making a scrapbook of all your aliens." Raf said. "Would you like it if I sent it to her?"

"Yes, please do. But let me type up the message." Raf rotated the keyboard computer and let Jack type a message in.

Hey Riley. Sorry that your picture got removed. I did manage to find who had it removed and recovered it. Here you go. From Chromastone.

"Why did you write Chromastone? Why not a screen name?" Raf asked after seeing Jack's message.

"There's only one Chromastone who knew about the picture, me." Jack said.

"Alrighty then. On to other matters." June said. "When we get to town we shou-" The engine started to sputter. "Uh oh. That doesn't sound good." The RV shut off.

Back at the training site...

"This is where the Omnitrix was last activated." One of the bounty hunters said after checking a scanner. On a cliff, the other two, the crab and the black and magenta humanoid watched him approach the training coarse.

[We should just destroy this planet and look for the Omnitrix in the debris.] The humanoid grumbled in his own language.

"You can say that again. A rock like this is better off as space dust."

The black and grey hunter saw a soda can with one of Bloxx's projectile in it. He tries to pick it up, but the humanoid that didn't speak english grabbed it first with a mechanical tentacle. The much more muscular being grabbed it and ripped the tentacle off. A standoff ensued.

The alien said something in it's language.

"Whoa. Big talk from a gear head." The crab said.

"Get in my way again SixSix, and I'll teach you how to say dismantled." The black and grey armored guy said.

SixSix flew off as Krabb pulled an Airachnid and used his legs as a tunnel drill. The last guy just walked away as a black helicopter flew to where they were. It transformed into the decepticon huntress Airachnid.

"Now where are you Arcee?" Airachnid said as she used a scanner to look for trace amounts of energon. "The you are." Airachnid transformed and flew off.

Back with the Rust Bucket...

The Rust Bucket had to make a stop in a ghost town due to mechanical trouble. Most of the town's buildings were falling apart. Arcee was in her robot mode stretching out abit, June was checking on the engine, while the kids just chatted.

"Looks like nobody's home." Miko said.

"Not for a long while." Raf said. "Apparently this is Slatterville. Incorporated in 1857 after the discovery of silver. Went from boom to bust in the late fifties when the mine ran out."

"Why is it that everything that comes out of your mouth sounds like a book report?"

"Ah ha." June said. "I think I found the problem." She held out a piece of black tubing that had a red projectile in here. "Leak fuel line."

"Sorry mom." Jack said apologetically. "I'll fix it." She said.

"Don't worry about it. I can patch it up."

"Hey Mrs Darby, is it okay if I go look around?" Miko asked.

"Sure." Miko ran off to look through the abandoned buildings.

"Jack, I think you should go with Miko and make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

"Okay." Jack said.

Miko walked into what seemed to be a warehouse.

"Miko!" Jack shouted. Miko saw Jack and had a devious smile. She picked up a wrench and threw it at an old piece of machinery, making a loud clang.

Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected an alien that seemed to look like a ghost. "Haven't used you yet." Jack said to himself. He pressed it down, transforming him and sending out a signal to the hunters.

With SixSix...

SixSix detected the signal the Omnitrix made whenever it was activated.

Back in Slatterville...

Miko was suppressing her laughter, she was going to surprise Jack and get a scare out of him.

"Burr." Miko suddenly shivered. "What was that?"

"What's the matter Miko?" A very raspy voice whispered. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I didn't mean to disturb your home. Please don't hurt me." Miko whimpered.

"Ha ha ha ha!" The ghost chuckled. It revealed itself to be a grey being with a tail, a single blue eye, lines going around its torso, and lacked any nose, mouth, ears, or legs.

"Jack! You were scary until I saw what you look like. Scary movie rule #1, don't show what the monster looks like until late in the movie. By the way, what are you calling that one?"

'Zs'Skayr.' A voice that nobody could hear fully rasped. Jack could only hear it as a faint whisper.

"Ghostfreak." Jack answered.

'Oh come on!' That voice rasped in disapproval.

"So, now what?" Miko asked.

"We go check on mom to see how she's doing. They heard a rumbling. The bounty hunter known as Kraab was tunneling towards the two of them. Ghostfreak grabbed Miko's shoulders and carried her away from the danger. The hunter emerged from under the ground and turned to face them.

"Jack, what's that?" Miko asked as Kraab walked close to them.

"I don't know, but whatever it is, I'll deal with it." Ghostfreak flew over to the hunter. "Who are you?" He didn't get an answer. "Not very talkative. Well then, what do you want, is it something I have?"

"Hand over the Omnitrix and I promise you won't suffer, much." Kraab said.

"Dream on claw boy." Ghostfreak said. "The Omnitrix and I are, kinda attached."

"Not for long." Kraab snapped his claw shut.

"You have no idea who you're messing with." Ghostfreak said.

"I was just about to say the same thing."

"Wanna see a trick?" Jack asked. "Now you see me." Ghostfreak turned invisible. "Now you don't." Miko was the only thing that the hunter could see. She ran off as the crustacean like being stumbled around, looking for Ghostfreak. Ghostfreak, still invisible, rose up from the floor behind him.

"You're as arrogant as you are dimwitted." He said after turning his head to see Ghostfreak by using a thermal scan. His whole body turned around and he shot an orange goo out of his claw arm that made him visible.

"What did you do? What the heck is this stuff?" Jack asked as he tried to get the goo off.

"Your protoplasm is now solidified, making it easier to do this." He punched Ghostfreak, sending him back into a crate. He rubbed his head as Kraab got closer to him. Kraab tried to crush him with one of his legs, but Jack dodged it at the last second. He tried to fly above Kraab to get away, but the hunter caught his tail and threw Ghostfreak in Miko's direction. Miko was hiding behind an empty oil barrel. She ran over to help him up.

"Who is this guy?" Ghostfreak asked.

"Remember when you said that the Omnitrix might attract dangerous people? Well, I believe you now." Miko said.

Kraab walked over and approach the two.

"Do something Jack." Miko said. Ghostfreak flew over towards Kraab.

"You better keep your claws to yourself." Jack said as he hovered around Kraab. Kraab then shot at Jack with a beam cannon, sending him back.

"Hardly worth the hunt." Kraab said as he approached Jack.

"Let's see if I can't use another alien." Ghostfreak said to himself. He turned the dial to the right and pressed it down. "Big Chill!" He exhaled, freezing Kraab's legs in place. "Why don't I give you a raise?" Big Chill asked. He pulled a lever and raised an elevator used for car repair. That didn't stop Kraab, it only allowed them to escape. The Omnitrix timed out as Miko ran up to Jack.

"Come on, let's get out of here before crabcake wakes up."

They ran out of the warehouse and back to the rust bucket. The black armored hunter watched them.

"What happened?" June asked as the two ran towards the camper.

"Oh, nothing out of the ordinary. Some jumbo sized arthropod burst out of the ground and wants to kill Jack." Miko said sarcastically.

"That's actually normal." Arcee said. "Wait, arthropod? Airachnid!"

"No, this one was a lot smaller." Jack said. "Any way, are the repairs done?" Jack asked nervously.

"Yeah." June said.

"Good. Now let's put as much distance between us and crab face as possible." Miko said.

They secured Arcee's vehicle form to the trailer and drove off, Jack and Miko looking the most relieved to get out of that town.

Later...

"Jack, you and Miko aren't telling us something." June said.

"Yeah, what happened back there? It seemed like you two saw a monster." Arcee's holoform said. "You can tell us what you guys saw back there."

"There was this crab guy who wanted the Omnitrix. Jack managed to beat him, but we didn't stick around to see if he won."

"Well, at least we won't have to worry about that anytime soon." Raf said, jinxing it.

A buzzsaw could be heard as the roof of the Rust Bucket was cut open with a circlur saw that had red glowing teeth.

"I think we just picked up a hitchhiker!" Miko said in fear.

When the buzzing stopped and then clawed hands ripped through the roof like it was tin foil.

[Where is the Omnitrix?!] SixSix demanded from the humans.

"Who the heck's that?!" Raf shouted.

"Beat's me." Arcee said.

SixSix was reaching for Jack. June saw this through the rear view mirror and slammed on the breaks. She sent SixSix flying off the roof and about twenty feet in front of the rust bucket.

June drove over the being that tried to kidnap her son with a grin on her face as she felt the wheels go over the alien, but that grin turned into a frown when she felt the RV slow down to a stop. She got out and saw that there were spikes in the tires. She saw that SixSix wasn't down for the count, as did Miko, Jack, Raf, and Arcee.

"In there!" June shouted, pointing at the entrace to a mine.

"June, it could be unstable in there." Arcee said.

"It's more dangerous out here!" She retorted.

Arcee transformed into robot mode, tearing the ropes that held her alt in place and then transformed into vehicle mode to follow them into the mine.

Moments after the humans and Arcee had hidden in the mine, Kraab came out of the ground, using his legs as a helicopter blade to hover.

"Remember me?" He said to SixSix before landing on him.

Inside the mine, the humans hide on the right side of a T-junction, while Arcee was on the other side.

Jack peared out to look down the entrance and didn't see anything.

"Phew! The coast is clear." Jack said. An instant later, Kraab tunneled out from under the ground.

"Let's make a rule. If we think something's over, let's never voice that thought." June suggested.

"Agreed." They all said.

"The Omnitrix! Give it to me!" Kraab demanded as he approach them. Arcee transformed into Robot mode, having to crouch down and fired at Kraab.

"Stay away from them bottom feeder!" Arcee taunted. Kraab ignore the hit.

"Hello Arcee." A familiar voice said.

"No!" Arcee turned around to come face to face with her arch enemy, Airachnid. "What are you doing here?!"

Airachnid had used her legs to drill a tunnel that made it so that she could stand up in it without a problem.

"The same reason Kraab, SixSix, and that other guy are here, to collect the Omnitrix, only for me, it's a personal matter. Why don't you call your partner over to help you, oh, wait, he's busy with Kraab."

"Leave Jack out of this!" Arcee furiously spat out.

"So it is Jack. I thought it was on of the other humans and you just left Jack because you wanted an equal partner, not some sorta glorified pet."

"Eat slag!" Arcee shouted. She lunged at Airachnid and got into a fist fight with her.

Meanwhile, Jack, June, Miko, and Raf had run down several tunnels and had made their way to a large man made chasm that was lined with wooden walkways. They were at a dead end.

Kraab walked ran through the walls to get to them.

"Now what?!" Raf asked in a panic.

June looked around and saw what looked like the combination of a minecart and cable car.

"We take a ride." June pointed to it. They were relieved to find out that it could fit them all in there. June pulled the lever, allowing the cable car to start. She turned and jumped, grabbing onto the side of the car. Jack and Miko helped her in.

"What a pathetic excuse for prey." Kraab insultingly said as he was about to cut the cable.

He was then blasted by SixSIx, who flew at the cable cart, and then fired at it.

Miko looked over the top and saw SixSix about to fire a bolt at her. She then ducked under before he fired at her.

"We got company closing in fast!"

"We need a plan." June said.

"Jack, is the Omnitrix recharged?" Raf asked.

"Yep." Jack said after it the red changed to blue.

"No! That's just what it wants!" June shouted.

"Mom, you got any other ideas?" Jack asked before activated the Omnitrix.

"Fine, just be safe, or, as safe as one can be when you can be."

"Okay, then let's see how this guy handles when he's up against," Jack selected the hologram of Big Chill. "Diamondhead! Seriously? Oh well, you'll have to do." Jack jumped at SixSix, landing on him and forcing him down since his jetpack shorted out.

"Jack!" June shouted as she saw Diamondhead and the guy he was jumping on plummet into the darkness. When the cable cart neared the other side of the chasm, SixSix's jetpack restarted, causing him and Diamondhead to fly by the cart and then into the rock that the walls were made of.

"Jack, come on!" June shouted as the cart entered a mine shaft.

"I'll catch up. right now I gotta make sure that this walking vending machine is out of order.

Kraab came up from behind Diamondhead and grabbed his left arm and flung him at the wall. Diamondhead got up and leaped at them. He shoved SixSix to the side and used a buckler that he generated on his right arm to disorientate Kraab by slamming it into his chest. SixSix shot him in the back, distracting Diamondhead and allowing Kraab to grab him with his claw arm. SixSix punched Diamondhead, as did Kraab. Kraab slammed Diamondhead on the ground and then flung him at the wall. SixSix walked over and stood beside Kraab.

"Back off! That reward's mine!" Kraab said.

[SixSix's language]

"Well, you don't have to get personal." Kraab said.

A camo green sphere with light green circles on it was thrown in the direction of the two hunters. It was a smoke bomb that caused SixSix and Kraab to fall over. It was shot out of a launcher that was being used by the third, or fourth hunter if you count Airachnid. He flew on his hoverboard and grabbed Diamondhead by one of his shoulder spikes.

He flew out of the mine shaft and tossed Diamondhead into some mine carts.

"Billions of beings on this planet and the Omnitrix ends up on the wrist of a foolhardy youth."

"Well, like I told your buddies back there, this thing doesn't come off. Believe me, I've tried."

"Oh course it doesn't." The black armored being said. "It's power utilizes alien DNA, which binds to the host's genetic structure. It can not be remove like simply taking off a hat." Diamondhead turned into Big Chill and tossed a rock at this guy. He turned invisible and ran around him. "Where'd you go?" Big Chill turned visible again and exhaled, freezing the 'friendlier' bounty hunter's arms in place. "It seems your choice of warriors is based either on partial misdirection or brute strength, with little to no regard for strategy, though I must admit, when you do put effort into your attacks, one could find your choices clever, for a human." Big Chill exhaled again, freezing his legs in place.

"Who are you calling foolhardy?" Jack said. "I've beaten guys more than twice your size."

"Your recent bout with the bounty hunters in the mine showed otherwise." The armored guy broke out of the ice.

"Hey! It was two against one back there!" Big Chill transformed back into Diamondhead and charge at this guy with his arms turned into blades. He slashed at the guy criticizing him with an angered expression on his face.

"You were moments away from losing your life, and the Omnitrix." Big Chill's attacks were blocked. "Victory should've been swift and effortless." Jack was tossed back into the mine carts. "The Omnitrix is not some toy for your amusement. It is the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, the tipping point in the struggle between good and evil."

"Yeah, and whose side are you on?" Diamondhead asked. He was rubbing his head as the time out sound was heard, turning him back into a human.

"You're still alive, aren't you?" He said.

"You're a good guy?" Jack said.

"My mission is to retrieve the Omnitrix at all cost. And since it's attached to you, I shall bring you with me for its removal."

"Oh no, if you think I'm coming with you to some far off planet, you got another thing coming."

"It's not your choice." The armored guy grabbed Jack by his shirt. Jack struggled and manage to slip out of his long sleve shirt. Without his would be abductor noticing, he managed to grab one of his blasters off of his belt and rolled away.

"It is now!" Jack pointed the blaster at him and pulled the trigger. A blast of blue energy came out of it, sending Jack back a few feet, while his attacker was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. Jack though he beat him and had a grin on his face. When the smoke cleared, Jack saw that the one who was trying to kidnap him nicely, wasn't damaged at all, his grin turning into a frown.

"Clever, but you lack experience. You know neither the strengths or weaknesses of any your forms." He walked over to Jack, who was laying on the ground and firing at him.

"Yeah, what does that mean?" Jack asked as he was grabbed.

"For example. the form that you have dubbed Diamond Head, there is much that it can do. You've barely scratched the surface of its potential."

"Yeah, and what makes you an expert?" Jack asked.

The hunter's mask folded up to reveal a head that looked exactly like diamond head, except the eyes were dark green.

"You're like Diamondhead!" Jack said.

"Wrong! I am Tetrax Shard, I am a noble warrior. You on the other hand, are an immature annoyance." Tetrax said. He grabbed Jack by the back of this shortsleeve shirt. "We have wasted too much time.

"Hey! Put me down!" He shouted while he struggled. Tetrax payed that no mind and look around for his hover board.

Kraab came around the corner and had it held in his normal arm.

"Looking for this?" Kraab said. "You're not getting off this planet without the Omnitrix. And just to make sure..."

SixSix came from the same direction and dragged June on the ground while he held Raf and Miko in the other.

"Hands off!" June shouted.

"Let us go!" Miko yelled as she tried to kick SixSix's face. Jack had a look of shock on his face.

"See, we've decided to work together, to split the reward, and you, in half."

Kraab shot at Jack and Tetrax as SixSix held blades to the throats of the three. Tetrax blocked the shots with his body and ran into one of the buildings as a blue motorcycle approached with a black helicopter following it. Tetrax tossed Jack to the ground as Kraab fired a beam at the building.

[Two lifeforms are heading towards us.] SixSix said.

"Don't blow a gasket metal mouth." Kraab said.

"What are we waiting for, we gotta save them!" Jack shouted.

Tetrax grabbed Jack by the front of his shirt. "Don't be foolish, keeping the Omnitrix secure is the only priority here."

"Maybe not for you, but they're my friends and family!"

"You cannot save them, you would soon be overpowered and captured." Tetrax said. The obvious choice is for me to retrieve my hoverboard so that we may leave this planet." He dropped Jack and exited the building. "Stay here!"

Tetrax saw that a twenty foot tall blue female shaped robot was fighting SixSix and Kraab. She apparently had rescued the three humans and was trying to hold them off.

Arcee saw tetrax and tossed him at a building that was across from the one Jack was in.

"Who the scrap are you and what have you done with Jack?!" Arcee barked.

"I will not reveal that to you, Cybertronian. And as for the one you care so much for, I ordered him to hide." Tetrax answered the ticked off femme. The two other hunters approached Arcee and Tetrax. "We can settle this later. Right now we should deal with these two."

"Fine!" Arcee spat.

Jack peered out of his hiding spot to see Kraab land in front of the hole in the wall. Kraab didn't notice him and went back to fighting Arcee, while SixSix battled Tetrax.

"Alright." Jack said as he noticed the Omnitrix had recharged. "It's hero time!" Jack was about to transform into humungousaur, but though of a more graceful way of beating his attackers. We then shifted to the hologram of Grey Matter, but before he could transform, the back wall of the building collapsed, revealing a face that horrified Jack. Airachnid had found him. She said in her venomous voice, two word that when the two first met terrified him, and still did so now. They were:

"Hello Jack."

"Airachnid! How did you find me?" The Omnitrix went back into its inactive mode.

"Oh, it's now easier than ever to track you if one has the right gear."

"What do you mean?"

"The Omnitrix, every time you transform it sends out an energy signal that can be traced back to you." Airachnid said. She blasted a strand of webbing at Jack, sticking on his chest and allowing her to reel him in. She held him in her right hand. "Speaking of which, did you know that the Omnitrix can scan in the genetic material of other sentient life forms? And seeing as you don't possess a cybertronian form, allow me to do this." She took one of her claws and tapped it on the dial of the Omnitrix. It emitted a flash of yellow light.

"DNA scanned and rearranged to suit the chemical structure of Omnitrix host. Cybertronian and Insecticon CNA unlocked and added to playlist 1984." The Omnitrix said in a strangely human voice.

"Now, what to do with you..." Airachnid opened activated the Omnitrix. She cycled through the holograms until she found the ones she was looking for. Jack's hologram for a cybertronian form had the same body type as Cliffjumper, but the head lacked horns and was shaped kinda like a knight's helmet. "This reminds me of Tailgate. Maybe it'll remind Arcee of him as well." She then went to the next hologram, which was an insecticon that had the features of a wasp. "Or maybe I could use this one of your forms to kill Arcee, and then right before you snuff her spark, I'll revert you back to being a human so that she can know that her partner killed her." She shifted back and forth between the holograms. "What to do, should I use her PTSD to damage her, or should I use you to hurt her?" She asked. "Let's do this quickly. I'll use your cybertronian form."

She walked through the remaining wall and out into the sandy road to see Arcee and Tetrax fighting SixSix and Kraab.

"Arcee, look what I have." Airachnid taunted.

"No!" She saw that Airachnid had Jack. "Release him!"

"I have a bounty to collect on this human, but who's to say I can't enjoy myself a bit?"

She activated the Omnitrix against Jack's will. She cycled through the holograms until she got to where she thought the hologram of the Cybertronian was. Without checking to make sure if she got the right one, Airachnid transformed Jack.

"No!" Arcee screamed as she sidekicked SixSix, who was flying at her with his jet pack.

Jack's whole body melted, clothes and all until it was a green slime. A UFO like device flew over and allowed the slime to form into a humanoid being that had three fingers and a thumb on each hand, a cone shaped head that seemed like the slime forming its body was hanging off of the UFO. Shoulder spikes were present that seemed to be hanging off of something. He had an omnitrix symbol on his chest and light blue eyes on a featureless face.

"What the?! It gave me the wrong thing!" Airachnid was disappointed.

"Goop!" Jack said in a squeaky voice. "A new alien? Cool!" Goop said. "I'd never thought I'd be saying this, but thank you for giving me the wrong alien!" The UFO moved up towards Airachnid head, taking all of the slime that composed Goop with it. "Well, I'm not sure what this one does, but I'll figure that out later, now, Airachnid, how's about you deal with..." Goop rotated the dial again and pressed it down.

"Upgrade!" Jack said after he was engulfed in a flash of blue light, but he wasn't upgrade, he was Grey Matter. "You know what, I can make this work!" He said. Grey Matter pulled some of Airachnid's neck cables.

"Get off me you frog!" Airachnid shouted. She tried to get him off of her, but when she tried to move her arms, she found that they failed to function. "What did you do to me you pest?!"

"I just disconnected a few wires that allow you to control you arms. I suggest you head back to the Nemesis before I do some more damage." Grey Matter said. He then jumped from Airachnid to Kraab.

"You and your partner survive this time Arcee!" Airachnid transformed into her helicopter mode and flew off.

While he was on Kraab, Grey Matter pulled some wires that caused the quadrupedal being to flail his arms and yell out in pain. After enough wires were pulled, Kraab was shut down and fell over.

"Two down." Jack said as he ran from Kraab's disabled body.

Tetrax and SixSix were in a fist fight. SixSix managed to grab onto Tetrax and took off, slamming him into the ground.

SixSix saw Grey Matter and aimed his wrist mounted missile launcher at him.

June ran up and jumped on SixSix's back, trying to obstruct him.

"Jack! Run!" June was thrown off of the hunter's back and was held down. SixSix was about to slice her head off with his laser buzzsaw.

"No!" Miko screamed. Arcee didn't shoot since she saw that Grey Matter was running towards SixSix and was climbing up the hunter's leg made his way up to one of his shoulder pads.

"Guess who?" Grey Matter shouted, getting his mother's attacker's attention. SixSix ceased trying to cut June's head off and tried to shake the Galvan off of him.

"I told you to let me handle this!"

"And you were doing a bang up job crystal man." June said as Tetrax got up and walked over to June, helping her up.

"I am a petrosapien." Tetrax said. "You should know that." He said quietly.

Jack saw that SixSix's armor had a similar setup to that of Kraab's.

"I wonder what would happen if I did this." Jack pulled a bunch of wires that cause SixSix's jetpack to turn on, but he hand no control over it. He flew up to a water tower and went around it and hit it on the return. SixSix crashed right next to Kraab after painfully skidding on the ground.

The water tower collapsed. Kraab, still having control of his neck said this...

"I hate this planet." He said before he and SixSix were crushed, but were still alive after it.

"It may not be Big Chill, but it's a great way to beat the heat." Grey Matter said triumphantly.

"Pretty smart, for a human." Tetrax said before he fired a light blue cube at the two unconscious bounty hunters. The cube expanded to encompass the two of them and then contracted to a more manageable size.

The Omnitrix timed out and Jack was reverted to his human state.

"I will return as soon as I am able to." Tetrax said after he picked up the cube.

"But what about the Omnitrix?" Jack asked.

"It's in good hands until then." Tetrax said. "However, this might be of some use in the meantime." Tetrax handed Jack his hoverboard in its colapsed state.

"Cool." Jack said as he deployed it. "But I'm not really much of a skateboarder. And wait, didn't you say that you needed this to get off of the planet?"

"Selective disinformation." Tetrax said.

"Huh?" Miko was confused.

"He lied." Raf clarified.

Tetrax deployed his helmet and pressed a button on a device. In a flash of red light he teleported away.

"How come you get all the cool alien stuff?" Miko asked.

"Do you want it?"

"Sure!" She took the hoverboard from Jack.

"Just be sure to stay close to the ground." Jack said.

Back on Vilgax's ship...

A drone saw a flash of light leave the planet then disappear.

"Betrayed." Vilgax groaned as he saw this.

"Sensors indicate that the Omnitrix is not with the mercenary." The drone said.

"It would appear that the human who possesses the Omnitrix is as clever as it is fierce. But I shall not be denied."

Back on Earth...

Our main cast has made their way back to the Rust Bucket.

"So yeah, your normal getup is trashed." Miko said.

"Well, I did bring more than one shirt, but I have been wanting to try out something new.

Jack went in to the Rust Bucket and found a blue folded up jacket. He put it on over his short sleeve t shirt and walked out of the camper. The jacket was the same shade of blue as Arcee and had two white strikes around the right arm, a white stripe going down the left side of his chest with a black circle with a red autobot insignia near where his shoulder would be. However he didn't notice the emblem.

"So, what do you think?"

"It looks pretty cool." June said. "Autobot Jack." Jack then noticed the insignia.

"What the? Miko!" Jack shouted.

"What? It looks better than the ten that was on it."

"Yeah, now I stick out like a sore thumb with this."

"Well, I think it looks cool." Raf said. "You're sorta a superhero, so it makes sense that your outfit reflects your personality."

"Well when you put it like that, I guess that the name Jack 10 doesn't sound as natural. Mom, this is one of the few times I wish you named me Ben. But you were like 'you already have a cousin named Ben', because Ben 10 sounds cool."

"But you have more than ten aliens." Miko said.

"Well, I like how it sounds." Jack said.

Chapter end...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Airachnid is still part of the Decepticons because some of the events from TFP have yet to happen. Dreadwing will show up eventually. The jacket Jack's going to start wearing looks just like the one Ben wore in Alien force and Ultimate alien, except it has the autobot logo instead of the number ten, and is blue.


	5. Fears

Chicago, IL, Nighttime...

At the famous navy pier, two men climbed down a ladder to get to a small row boat. One had black hair, the other was bald.

"Knocking over that yacht was a piece of cake!" The black haired guy said. They both laughed. There were two blue lights in the water, which he looked at, wondering what they were. Seconds later, a four fingered webbed hand with yellow claws reached out of the water and dragged him under.

His accomplish was untying a rope when he heard this. He looked over and only found this partner's red hat.

A fish head that looked like a combination of multiple types of fish jutted out of the water. It had catfish like whiskers, grey scales, a yellow glowing lure like an anglerfish, a green dorsal fin, and a mouth full of sharp teeth, but only sixteen of them were on the outside. Yep, it's definitely Jack.

"What the heck are you?!" The bald man fearfully shouted. He got out of the boat and speedily climbed up the ladder.

He ran down the pier and towards the shore, Jack fallowing him like a shark in a movie.

The criminal stopped to catch his breath by a hotdog cart. He looked around and thought that he had lost the fish monster, but that was not the case. A jet of water came from the side of the pier and splashed down a few yards in front of the hotdog cart. Jack's current form was seen in full. He had webbed feet with two toes that resembled flippers that are used by humans, muscular shins that were used for swimming, a tail that ended in what seemed to be that of a shark, his forearms and blade like fins, similar in location to the spikes on Fast Track, he also had what appeared to be black armor near his neck and shoulders and his forearms. Like all of Jack's transformations, the Omnitrix symbol was on the chest.

The criminal looked a the creature with fear. He stumbled back and bumped into the hotdog cart. He went to the other side of it and pushed it over, spilling the oil that fueled it. He disconnected a wire and touched it to the oil, igniting it. Jack looked around and was worried.

"God I love an old fashioned fish fry!" The guy gleefully said.

"Hey!" Jack's current form said with a rasping voice. "Can't *caugh caugh!* breath! Need water!" Jack fell to his knees. He had enough strength to punch through the pier. He dove into the water and breathed a sigh of relief. 'That was a close one. Note to self, only use when there's water nearby.' Jack said to himself. 'Now, let's deal with this thug.'

Jack jumped out of the water and by pure chance, he burst through the planks right were the crook was. He had the man in his mouth and shook him around a bit and then tossed him into one of those game where you have to knock all of the cans over.

Later...

The police had shown up and arrested the two crooks. They were handcuffed and placed in one of the cars. One of the officers congratulated Jack.

"I don't care what anybody says," He said. "you circus freaks are okay by me."

"Circus freak? I'm not a circus freak." Jack said. "I'm a superhero." Jack climbed over the railing and jumped in the lake.

"Hmm. Looked like a freak to me." The officer said while looking over the railing.

"Oh." Jack poked his head out of the water. "When you file the report, call me Ripjaws." Jack then darted back down.

Jack made his way to the bridge that led to the navy pier. Fortunately, he made it out of the water before the Omnitrix timed out. He walked to a parking lot where the rustbucket was parked. He entered and saw that his mom was waiting for him.

"So, how was your swim?" June asked.

"Oh pretty refreshing." Jack said. "Except for the guy who tried to fry me, literally. But don't freak out mom, I got out of the fire and stopped him." Jack noticed that Miko, Raf, and Arcee were gone. "Where is everyone?"

"Still at the pier." June showed Jack a flyer. It read Zombozo's traveling circus of laughs. "Guess where we're going tomorrow."

Jack screamed like a little girl and collapsed.

"Weird, I thought he was only afraid of peacocks."

The next morning...

Jack woke up groaning.

"How long was I out?" Jack asked.

"All night." Arcee said.

"Jack, guess where we're going."

"The circus." Jack gulped.

"What's the matter Jack, scared of the circus?"

"N-n-no."

"I've never been to a circus." Raf said.

"I have." Arcee added. "I can't believe you humans find that stuff entertaining."

"What, you're against a little fun?" Miko questioned.

"No, I'm against traumatize small children. *While coughing* 2004."

"How did you know?" June asked.

"I was there. In fact, I was sitting next to you two. I can't believe only now I remembered."

"Well, who want's to go?"

"I do!" Miko excitedly said. "I love the circus."

"Well you guys can go. Arcee and I'll stay here."

"Sorry partner, I'm gonna give it a second try." Arcee said.

*Fake yawning* "It's pretty late."

"Hello, it's ten in the morning." Miko clarified.

"Alright! Fine by me! If you guys want to go see some unholy terrors, go right ahead!"

Later, at Leroy, IL...

The gang walked towards the main tent. Jack, who was normally the bravest, was acting pretty scared right now.

"Looks like the whole town showed up." June said.

Jack looked around and saw some signs that freaked him out. They were of a white faced clown with a black top hat with a blue jem in the center. He had red hair, yellow teeth, purple lips, a blue nose

"It's probably sold out. We're probably just wasting our time."

"Step right up and see," A carnival barker said. "the three thumbed freak of nature, whose strength knows no bounds, thumb skull!" A brawny man who had what appeared to be a thumb nail on his head stepped out of the shadows and bent a steel pipe over his neck.

Thumbskull threw the bent pipe in the air, where it was caught by a strand of orange hair that had a black sphere on the end.

"And presenting Frightwig!" The Barker, well, barked. "When this beauty lets down her hair, there's no telling what'll happen!" Frightwig bent the pipe into a circle. She placed it on an anvil.

"And last but not least, the freak who's unique skill is as vile as his attitude," A man with only a single group of black hair and one eye that was black, the other red, walked out of the tent. "Acid Breath!"

Acid Breath removed the muzzle that was on him. His mouth opened up to a slightly unnatural degree. He then exhaled on the anvil, and true to his name, his breath dissolved the metal.

"Gross!" Miko said. "But awesome!" She took a picture of it.

Jack had wandered away and saw an opening in one of the tents. He went inside to find what appeared to be Zombozo getting ready.

"Howdy folks!" He said with the voice of Tim Curry from It. "Are you ready to laugh!" His voice changed to something more sinister. "Perfect! You're gonna knock them dead." He placed his hat on.

Jack was terrified and stumbled back. He bumped into someone and due to him being on edge, he yelped.

"Hey." He saw that it was Miko.

"Please don't do that!" Jack panted.

"What is your major malfunction?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Ever since we've decided to go to the circus, you've been acting weirder than how you normally act. What are you scared of?"

"I'm not scare of a bunch of Tim Burton clowns, that's for sure." Jack said.

Raf came from behind the corner.

"Miko, Jack, come on, the show's about to start!" Raf said.

"After you." Miko said mockingly. Jack had a stern look on his face and walked to the tent.

Inside...

A spotlight shined on the carnival barker from earlier.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Children of all ages and races!" He announced. "The Circus of Laughter is proud to present, the Sultan of Smiles, the Crown Prince of Chuckles, the rib tickler himself! The star of our show! Zombozo the Clown!"

A small pink car drove in. It came to a screeching stop. Its door opened and Zombozo stepped out of it.

The audience was impressed and clapped. However, Jack was too scared to do so.

"Impressive." Arcee said.

The car drove towards the opening in the tent that it came in. It turned around and revved up its engine, much like what a bull would do before charging.

Zombozo encouraged the car to charge at him. He pulled a matador's cape out of his sleeve and waved it like a bullfighter. The car charged and when it hit the cape, it turned into confetti.

"If you love clowns then this is your place to be!" He said in his Tim Curry voice while most of the audience laughed. Even Arcee was laughing. He held up his hands and drew attention to a machine that had a lot of pipe on the top of it. There were five glass pieces that looked like the one on Zombozo's hat. "You're gonna die laughing! That's a Zombozo guarantee!"

"I've gotta go, get some more popcorn." Jack said nervously. He walked down the bleachers and exited the tent.

"Is Jack alright?" June asked Miko.

"You're asking me if the guy who can transform into aliens is alright? That's a definite no!"

"I was never very good at math! But I believe that I have your undivided attention! Now how's about some volunteers?" The evil clown asked. "So full of life. For now." He said sinisterly.

Outside...

Jack had exited the tent and was hyperventilating.

"There is nothing funny about clowns!" Jack wheezed.

Jack heard glass being broken and hid behind a car. He saw that the circus freak trio was robbing a store.

"The freaks are felons!" Jack said quietly.

Thumbskull robbed broke the window of a jewelry store. He took the store's bling. Acid breath melted most of a car and ripped out the radio. Frightwig used her strange hair to rip out an ATM.

"It's pay day! Ha ha ha ha ha!" She laughed with the voice of Susie from Rugrats. No, seriously, Suzie and Frightwig share the same voice actress.

Jack activated the Omnitrix. "Time to put their plans on Ice." Jack was going to transform into Big Chill, but when he transformed, he got Wildmutt.

Thumbskull was carrying a couple of TV when he heard growling. His eyes widened when he saw Wildmutt jump from behind a car to the roof, the Vupimancer's maw drooling.

"Good doggy! Down boy!" Thumbskull stumbled back. Wildmutt mumbled something in the Vupimancer's language before he attacked. Wildmutt bodyslammed Thumbskull in the same way a big dog would accidently knock over a kid, only Jack meant to do that. It made him drop the two TVs. Wildmutt then charged at Frightwig and Acid Breath. He charged into Acid Breath before he could attack and knocked him over.

Frightwig used her hair to attack. She managed to grab onto Wildmutt, but the vulpimancer was too strong and managed to break free.

Wildmutt climbed onto a car that looked like the one Zombozo use, but was red, and ripped off the roof, spilling out their ill gotten good.

"Hey! That's out swag!" Thumbskull said. On a side note, the way I had Thumbskull use the term swag, is one of the right usages.

"No mutated mutt's gonna steal my loot!" Acid breath rasped. "Get him!" Acid breath exhaled a stream of his corrosive breath, but Wildmutt, unable to see it, smelled it and jumped before it hit the car.

He landed in the middle of the trio, kicking Thumbskull away and knocking Acid Breath back. He then charged at Frightwig.

"Don't just stand there like a sore thumb! Get the boss!" Acid breath ordered. Thumbskull ran into the tent.

Inside...

Everybody was laughing. There were holograms that had no rhyme or reason to them.

"Laughter truly is the best medicine, for me!" Zombozo pleasurably said. "Do you have prince albert in a can?" He asked the audience. "You do! Well ya better let him out! Ah ha! Ah ha! Ah ha! Ah ha!" He did in his Pennywise voice. Thumbskull approached him.

"Um, excuse me boss. Excuse me!" Thumbskull asked as Zombozo's smile turned into a frown.

"How many time have I told you to not bother me while I'm eating?!"

"Eh, we ran into a bit of trouble." He said.

Outside...

Frightwig and Acid Breath were pinned down by Wildmutt.

In a puff of smoke, confetti, and balloons, Zombozo appeared.

"I hear you're full of tricks little doggy." Zombozo said sinisterly. Wildmutt backed away fearfully. "Let's see if you know how to play dead." Zombozo took three steps forward and with a wide swing of his legs, he kicked Wildmutt's lower jaw, sending him flying.

Wildmutt whimpered before hiding behind a radio tower.

"This isn't a mad dog! It's a scaredy cat!"

The trio expressed their confusion non verbally.

"Bring the curtains down on this little sideshow!"

Acid Breath melted one of the supports. Frightwig pulled at a cross beam. Thumbskull just punched another supports.

As the structure collapsed, Wildmutt, without the freaks or their boss noticing, switched aliens.

"Dog gone!" Thumbskull laughed.

"Come on! We've got bigger laughs to get!" In a puff of smoke, Zombozo vanished.

Jack had survived by turning into Big Chill. He was invisible until they were gone and hid behind the totaled tower.

"Keep it together Jack!" He said to himself. "They're gone and they think you're dead!" He said as the Omnitrix timed out.

Later...

Jack went to where the tent was and found that it was gone. He saw that Miko, Raf, and Arcee's holoform were sitting on some stone steps, chuckling uncontrollably.

"Guys!" Jack ran up to them. "Snap out of it!" He shook Raf and Miko.

"Oh, Jack. Where'd you go?" Arcee asked in her fit of chuckling.

"Where'd I go? The better question is where did the circus go?"

"I'm not sure. I remember that we were laughing," Raf said. "It was so funny." Miko started to pass out.

"Miko, are you okay?" Jack worryingly asked.

"Heh heh. I just feel, kinda down, that's all."

"Then, why are you smiling? Why are you all smiling?!" Jack was getting more unnerved. "Wait, where's mom?!" Jack asked.

Jack pulled out his phone and called the only people that could possible help in a situation like this.

"Ratchet."

"What is it Jack?"

"I need you help. We went to a circus last night, and now Miko, Raf, and 'Cee are chuckling, and my mom just up and disappeared."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

Later, Autobot Outpost Omega-1...

Arcee who was now in her robot form, Miko, and Raf were on a medical berth, laughing uncontrollably. Bulkhead and Bumblebee were visibly concerned for their charges. Optimus did not show concern on the outside, but he was worried inwardly. Ratchet was scanning the trio. Agent Fowler had shown up and was told what had happened and he too was concerned.

"Jack, do you know what happened to them?" Optimus asked.

"I-I don't know. We went to this circus, but I didn't stick around, and saw these three circus freaks robbing some stores, so I stopped them, but after I let them and their boss think they killed me, I fell unconscious and woke up to find that the tent and mom were gone."

"Circus freaks? Any specific names?" Fowler asked.

"I know their stage names. Thumbskull, Frightwig, and Acid Breath."

"And their boss?"

"Zombozo." Jack said. His seized up and almost fell back if Fowler hadn't caught him. "Thanks."

"Ratchet, what's your diagnosis?" Fowler asked.

"They seem to be in a state of constant distress." Ratchet said.

"But why are they laughing?" Bumblebee questionably whirred.

"It is just a reflex. They aren't enjoying this in the slightest."

"But why are they like this?"

"I don't know enough about human psychology to give you a solid answer for the cause of Miko and Rafael's condition, but as for Arcee, bits and pieces of her spark are missing, specifically the areas that deal with happiness and joy."

"So this Zombozo guy stole their happiness?" Fowler asked.

"It would seem so. But why wasn't Jack affected?"

"Remember, I left before this could happen to me."

"Well, even if you had stayed, you wouldn't have been harmed. The process seems to require your psyche allowing him in. And..." Ratchet scanned Jack. "you seem to be displaying the signs of fear, increased perspiration on your palms, elevated heart rate, and a slight shiver, despite the temperature in the base being seventy degrees fahrenheit. Tell me Jack, what are you afraid of?"

"I d-d-d-don't want to talk about it."

"Jack, do you possess coulrophobia?" Optimus asked. "Simply put, it is a fear of clowns."

"Yes." Jack said very quietly. The Autobots could hear him but Fowler couldn't

"Jack, pull yourself together, you're mom's missing and we have to rescue her!" Fowler said.

"And fix everyone else!" Bumblebee said.

"Optimus, human or not, I say we go find these four and pound their heads in!" Bulkhead slammed his fists together.

"Under normal circumstances, I would agree. This 'Zombozo' is a threat that is more dangerous than a normal human, but if Zombozo is not aware of us, we can not allow him to learn of our existence."

"But Animo did." Bulkhead retorted.

"Doctor Animo learned of our existence through his rivalry with Silas and MECH, and his awareness of us came when he used Thundercracker to attack civilians."

"But who's going to stop them?" Bumblebee buzzed.

"Agent Fowler, you and Jack shall pursue Zombozo and his minions."

"How? They could be anywhere?"

"Or, since they're entertainers, they have a specific path..." Fowler suggested.

On the highway...

Thumbskull and Zombozo were diving to their next stop on their tour. Thumbskull was driving the truck.

"Did you pack me a snack for the road?" The insane clown who didn't need a posse asked. Thumbskull reached back and pulled back a curtain to show Zombozo the people in the back of the truck. There were eight people in the truck and June Darby was one of them.

In the Rust Bucket...

The Autobots had managed to locate where Zombozo was heading to and managed to ground bridge the Rust Bucket along with Jack and Fowler near where Zombozo currently was. It was on the side of a mountain.

Fowler was driving the motor home while Jack sat in the front seat next to him.

"Zombozo must have zonked out the entire town during the show." Jack said. "Then the freaks robbed everyone blind, by why kidnap mom?"

"I don't know, but don't worry, we'll get her back." Fowler said. "Jack, is there something bothering you?"

"Promise not to laugh?" Jack asked. Fowler nodded. "I'm afraid of clowns. They just really creep me out. I'm such a loser."

"Everybody's got their own crazy fear." The agent said. "Believe it not, there was a time when I was afraid of heights. Then I decided that enough was enough. So one day I climbed to the top of a water tower."

"Were'nt you scared."

"You can bet George Washington's ivory teeth I was. But after that, hieghts didn't bother me any more. Sometimes you just gotta scare the fear out of you."

"But what about my other fear."

"What? Your fear of peacocks?"

"How'd you know?" Jack asked.

"It's on your file. And I can't really help you with that. That's a bit too crazy. And I thought Bumblebee's fear of the movie The Langoliers was as crazy as it got."

Later, at the site of Zombozo's next show...

Jack and Fowler had arrived and had come up with a plan, Jack would distract Zombozo and hi minions while Fowler would shut down what ever he was using to pull this trick off.

Jack was sneaking around behind the tent near some of the things that hadn't been unpacked yet. Jack saw the trio carrying some crates and tried running the other way, but was spooked by a picture of Zombozo that was painted on the side of a tent. He stumbled back and knocked over a couple of crates, getting their attention.

"Looks like we have someone who wants to see the show without buying a ticket." Frightwig said as she removed Acid Breath's mask.

Jack hid behind one of the crates and activated the Omnitrix and transformed.

The trio attacked. Thumbskull pounded it, Frightwig used her steel tipped hair to attack it doing and inverted twirl, and Acid Breath breathed on it. But they attacked the wrong crate.

"Upgrade!"

"What's that noise?" Thumbskull asked. He along with the other two saw a robot that had a rectangular body, four spider like legs, an Omnitrix dial on what resembled an hourglass. "I don't know what you are, but I'm gonna tear you apart!" He charged at the robot that Upgrade had possessed.

"You wanna play hard ball? Game on!" Upgrade fired several softballs at Thumbskull, knocking him out.

Before he could admire his work, Frightwig leaped and landed several feet to the left of Upgrade. He fired several softballs, but the femme fatale knocked them out of the air with her wig.

"Is that all you got?" She asked.

"Lady, I'm just getting started!" Upgrade taunted. He fired some more shots at her, but she managed to block them as well. Upgrade darted out from behind the crate he was using as cover and while he wa close to the ground, he fired two more shots. Frightwig dodged one of them, but the second one caught her off guard, causing her to fall over and get wrapped up in her own hair.

Acid breath jumped onto one of the taller crates and exhaled. Upgrade managed to jump out of the way, avoiding Acid Breath's corrosive fumes. He ran as Acid Breath melted some more crates.

"Didn't your mom tell you it's not polite to spit?" Upgrade asked with his electronic voice.

"Who do you think taught me in the first place?" Acid Breath inhaled, and Jack used that to his advantage. Upgrade leaped and fired a softball into his extended maw, clogging it up. He then fired a bunch more and knocked Acid Breath out.

"Strike three!" Upgrade detached himself from the pitching machine, now in his normal humanoid form that was mostly black, but had green lines going around his body like circuitry. He then walked off towards the entrance of the tent. "You can do this." Upgrade said when he saw the wooden cut out of Zombozo above the entrance. "He's just a guy with a rubber nose and big shoes. Nothing Upgrade can't handle." The Omnitrix timed out and in a flash of red light, Jack was human. "Oh come on!" Jack moaned. "Whose side are you on?" He asked the Omnitrix.

Jack entered the tent and came walked up to a mirror.

"Ah!" Jack jumped back a bit. "Great, now you're afraid of your own reflection." Jack said. "Why does that seem symbolic?" He said while walking off.

Jack entered a room full of mirrors.

"Hiyah son!" The voice of Zombozo said. "Something tells me you're gonna be a barrel full of laugh!"

Jack looked around to try to find the source of the voice. Jack bumped into a mirror and stepped back, hitting another mirror. While he rubbed the back of his hand, his reflection gained white face paint like Zombozo, a blue nose, black eyes, and blue lips. They turned to face him.

"Hey mister serious..." The faces turned into those of Zombozo before spinning around and growing larger. "how about a..." The faces took up all of the mirrors they were on. "smile." They said sinisterly.

Jack turned around and saw that there were images of Zombozo, only these had a red, orange, and yellow color scheme. They reach to try to grab Jack as he ran through the chamber, swinging his arms defensively.

"What's your story morning glory?" Zombozo asked as Jack ran around what could only be described as a spiral. "Was that your mutt that gave my freaks such prouds?" Zombozo's head came out of the ground jack in a box style. "What about that weird blob outside?" Jack ran the opposite direction from the head. "Do they work for you?" A second head asked after it popped up. A third head popped up, sending Jack flying. "Or are you some kind of freak?"

"I'm not a freak!" Jack yelled as he fell. A flame pattern of Zombozo's head formed beneath him as he fell. Jack grabbed on to a trapeze and swung through a transparent copy of Zombozo's face, and let go of the one he was on managed to grab another one. But the rope holding this one snapped, causing Jack to fall into a spider's web.

"Come on kid," A spider with Zombozo's face said as it approached him. "you gotta learn to loosen up, laugh a little." The spider held its two front legs to Jack's cheeks as he struggled. "it's what keeps me going!" The spider cut several strands of the web, causing Jack to fall.

"Ah!" Jack screamed. He landed face first in a sand pit. A spotlight shined on him.

Zombozo walked up and Jack noticed that the blue gems on his grey and black striped suit had what looked like spirits in them, but one of them caught his attention, it was a blue orb that stood out like a sore thumb.

'Arcee!' Jack shouted in his head.

"Now don't tell me you're afraid of old Zombozo?" The insane clown asked. Jack looked at his hat to see his mom, but she looked much older and wrinkly, and was on fire, but was still laughing.

"What do you want?" Jack asked after stumbling back.

Zombozo snapped his fingers and a spotlight shined on the machine from earlier. A wire from the machine came up and attached itself to Zombozo's back. He used the cable to move like he was flying."Only what every clown worth his floppy shoes wants." He wriggled his feet. His face then changed into something less human. "Then drain their positive energy like a sponge at a pool party!" He said in a demonic voice. "Is that so wrong?" He asked in his less than innocent voice.

"Is that the machine you used to suck the happiness out of your audience?" Jack asked.

"I call it the Psyclown! Clever ain't it?" He asked. "More clever than sending Mr Fowler here to try and shut it off! Soon, I'll be taking my act to the big cities. Millions of people laughing for me! Feeding me! Making me stronger!"

"I want my mom back!" Jack shouted.

"Mom? Didn't you hear momma's boy? She ran away with the circus!" Jack's attention was drawn to his mother's figure, which lay unconscious under a spotlight. She looked like she was eighty and was chuckling and it sounded like it hurted.

Jack couldn't take this lying down any more. He stood up and decided to fight back.

"Oh, you're funny..." Jack said sarcastically as he cycled through aliens. "but I'm gonna get the last laugh!" Jack said as he slammed the Omnitrix face plate down.

His skin turned grey and then disappeared. A strange membrane covered his bones and organs. A tail formed. A slit on his head opened to reveal a single eye.

"Ghostfreak!" Jack shouted.

"Nice one kid, but news flash! I just sell the trick, I don't buy them."

"Consider this a donation."

"I don't take handouts neither."

"That's too bad, cause I just figured out what I'm even more afraid of then you." Ghostfreak said. He then punched Zombozo in the face, making him spin around and get the cable wrapped around him. He turned invisible after throwing the punch. "Losing my family to some goofball emotional vampire!" Zombozo looked around for Ghostfreak. "In other words..." Jack turned visible when he was behind Zombozo. "you're going down, clown!" Jack said after punching Zombozo's face.

Zombozo was mad. he looked around and out of nowhere, a board hit him in the face, sending him into the Psyclown, breaking it and robbing him of his power. The souls of the people flew away, returning to their bodies.

"I'm warning you to back off!" Zombozo nervously said.

"You want to see something really scary?" Ghostfreak opened his skin, revealing a buch of black and white tentacles that were attached to a purple body.

"Ah!" Zombozo stumbled back.

"Aw! Don't tell me you're afraid of old Ghostfreak?" He approached the trembling clown.

"Please! No more!" Zombozo screamed.

'Do it!' The voice that was in Ghostfreak's head suggested. 'Show him what he did to you.'

"Boo!" Zombozo expanded and in a blast of confetti and smoke, he was gone. "Woah, that kinda freaked me out." Ghost freak noticed that June was unconscious. The Omnitrix timed out.

Jack went up to his mom as she woke up.

"What the? Jack?" June said as she opened her eyes. "Hey, where's that popcorn?" She asked. Jack gave her a tight hug.

Later, in the Rust Bucket...

The circus freaks were being hauled off to prison as the camper drove off.

"You feeling better Mom?" Jack asked.

"Happy as a lark." She said.

"Sorry that I couldn't help you Jack. I kinda got lost. But you were really brave today." Fowler said over the phone. "Gotta admit, pretty clever, the way you scared your fear away."

"Thanks."

"Boo!" Miko jumped out from behind Jack in an attempt to scare him. She was wearing a clown mask.

"Oh hi Miko. I see you're trying out some new makeup." Jack mocked. "That's a good look for you."

"Aw, you're no fun anymore!"

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. The term white face clown is a real thing. It refers to the makeup that they were. I decided to have Arcee and Jack share a fear and have it come from the exact same time and place. And the references to Tim Curry's portrayal of Pennywise were intentional. The scene from that miniseries that I reference is one that is so out of place that if you were to see it by itself, you would think that it's from a comedy.


	6. Cold and Flu Season

New York City...

"Getting paid smash stuff! You gotta love this job!" A construction worker gleefully said as he used a wrecking ball to tear down a condemned apartment building.

His supervisor noticed a man unnatural blue skin and ratty clothes stand in the hole that was made in the apartment.

"Get out of our home." This strange man said in a rasping voice.

"Yeah. sure it is. Look man, I hate to break it to you but this building's been condemned by Councilwoman Liang." The worker operating the the crane said after stepping out.

"Yeah. So move it or lose it." His buddy said. "This place is coming down like it or not."

The blue man, who we later learn is called Clancy, so that's what I'll refer to him as, held out his arms. Thousands of mad hornets came out of his hands. The supervisor managed to get away but the guy who was operating the crane was grabbed by the swarm and taken up to clancy.

"Get these things off of me!" The worker said as he struggled.

"Well," Clancy hissed. "If you think we're bugging you now, just wait till the main event."

A suburb...

A bank robber was driving a red convertible with black racing stripes as he was being pursued by a black and green motorcycle.

"Ooo, they'll never catch me." The guy said triumphantly.

The motorcycle was driving itself, and it wasn't cybertronian, it was Upgrade, one of Jack's alien forms.

A truck blocked the main road so Upgrade drove on the shoulder of the road, but then that was blocked so he had to drive on the side walk.

"Look out! One side! Coming through!" He shouted as people got out of his way.

Upgrade got back on the road and did a wheelie to get on a car carrier truck. He used that to get closer to the perp. The lights at an intersection changed right after the convertible when by them. A camp drove by and Upgrade got under it by sliding. When he was driving properly, he fired a laser out of the circle that was on the front of the windshield. It blew the trunk open, causing the money to fly out.

"Some people just can't hang onto their money." Upgrade joked. He generated a green spike on the front wheel and used it to slash one of the tires, causing his to spin out of control and crash into some parked cars.

Jack switched forms.

"Big Chill!" The motorcycle returned to normal, which was a blue motorcycle with pink highlights. Big Chill was in the seat, making it seem like he was driving.

"No way!" The foiled robber said when he saw Big Chill.

"Oh yes way." Big Chill said. "You should just chill while the cops get here."

Jack and the Motorcycle, an Autobot named Arcee drove off. The Omnitrix started to time out. Jack jumped off of Arcee and phased through an ice cream delivery truck, but didn't make it to the other side before it timed out, leaving Jack trapped in a cold space.

"Scrap!" Jack tried to open the truck, but it was locked.

The cops showed up and had chipped the guy out of the ice and had place handcuffs on him while they placed him in the car.

"Look! I'm telling you! That motorcycle was driving itself, then a mothman was driving it!"

Arcee's holoform and June were watching the robber get hauled off.

"Where's Jack?" June asked.

"He phased through that truck over there, but he hasn't come from around it." Arcee said.

"You don't think..."

"Well, it is a hot day, so maybe he's eating what's in their."

"We better check." They ran to the icecream truck to hear a banging noise come from it. Arcee stuck her holoform's head through the side of the truck.

"We gotta get him out of there!" Arcee said. "I'll break the lock."

"No, I hate to say it, but we have to wait for the owner to come back."

Later...

The truck's driver came by to see June and Arcee standing by his truck.

"What are you two doing hanging around my truck?" He asked.

"My son was thrown into your truck by some jerks before they locked it. Mind getting him out for me?" June said, lying to give a more plausible explanation. The driver unlocked the door to find Jack shivering, green snot dripping from his noses, and as if to be cruel, a still recharging Omnitrix.

"Are you okay son?" The truck's driver asked.

"Ah choo!" Jack sneezed into his jacket's sleeve.

"I'll take that as a no." He turned to June. "I'm sorry that your son got trapped in here, any way I can make it up to you?"

"T-t-that w-w-won't be necessary. I-i-it had nothing to do with you." Jack shivered. June climbed in and helped him to the rust bucket.

In the Rust Bucket...

Jack was laying on one of the beds and was getting his temperature taken.

"One hundred and one. It's official, you have a summer cold." June said.

"Maybe you'll think twice before cooling off in a locked ice cream truck." Miko teased.

Jack took on of Miko's shirts and used it to wipe his nose.

"Hey! That's my new blouse!" Miko said.

"Maybe next time you'll think twice before leaving your clothes out." Jack said.

Raf was getting some things out of a box of medical supplies.

"Cold tablets, cough suppressants, decongestants, hospital masks..."

"Raf, thanks, but I don't really need all that stuff."

"It's not for you Jack, it's for the rest of us. Once something like that gets out, there's no stopping it."

"Why don't you just give him some cold medicine." Arcee suggested

"No, all Jack needs is a dose of my dad's famous San Ju Yen Pien cold remedy." June said. "Let's go, Chinatown's just down the block."

Chinatown...

Jack, Miko, and June exited the drug store while a parade was going on. June was carrying a jar with her.

"You know, it's so hard to find fresh potaigadon root these days. It's all freezed dried."

"Can I get a smoothie or something?" Jack asked. "My throat is killing me."

"Don't worry sweetie, the stinkweed honey in the San Ju Yen Pien coats your entire esophageal area." She handed Jack the jar. He opened it and smelled it.

"Geez, I bet Swampfire and Stinkfly don't smell nearly as bad as that!"

"So, where did your dad learn how to make this stuff?" Miko asked.

"He picked it up from a monk in Guangdong China." June saw Miko's questioning look. "They have plumbing in China too you know."

"Ladies and gentlemen." A woman said into a microphone. "I want to thank all of you for your support of my downtown redevelopment program." A wasp landed on her microphone. "It's truly a dream come true." More wasps showed up.

"Better make that a nightmare Councilwoman!" Clancy said. He was on a platform of the angry insects.

"Wasps!" Miko yelled as everybody in the general area was attacked by them.

"You're not tearing down our apartment building. We won't let you!"

"You're the nut job who wouldn't leave!" Councilwoman Liang said.

"Nice to know we've made an impression!" Clancy said. His eyes glowed light green, causing thousands of wasps to swarm around the Councilwoman.

"What are you doing?!" She asked as she was carried up be at eye level with Clancy.

"Just bringing you home for dinner." He said. "You're the main coarse!"

Jack activated the Omnitrix and decided on which alien to use.

"L-l-l-lets try one of the new guys." Jack said. He selected the hologram of the insecticon form. The Omnitrix for some reason sent out a yellow beam that scanned one of the wasps.

His arms and legs go more narrow. Antenne that were in a V pattern grew out of the top of his head as his skull became more streamline. His torso sprouted what looked like a wasp's head. Two mandibles grew out of his cheeks. A pair of wings grew out of his shoulders. From his back an insect's thorax grew until it seemed like it was the length of his thighs. His feet turned into three clawed pedes. His five fingered hands became four clawed graspers. His eyes became light blue optics as his skin turned into light green metal on his hands, feet, and upper arms, dark green metal on his shins and lower arms, black and yellow striped metal on his thighs and thorax, grass green on his chest wasp head while the eyes were light blue and segmented. There was an Omnitrix dial between the segmented eyes.

"Waspinator!" The new form said in a buzzing voice. "Ah choo!" Waspinator sneezed, sending a stream of supercharged energon particles flying at the organic bugs. "Waspinator sorry." He said. Waspinator jumped and transformed into his insect mode.

"What kind of bug is that?" Councilwoman Liang asked.

"It ain't one of mine. Clip its wings!" Clancy ordered the smaller insects.

"Waspinator not want fight, but if it fight you want, Waspi-i-i-. Achoo!" Waspinator sneezed, blasting energon at Clancy, but that missed. A swarm of of wasps came and knocked Waspinator out of the air.

He was going to crash into Miko but she managed to get out of the way.

"Hey, bug brain!" Miko shouted. When Waspinator turned to face her, he accidently knocked Miko into a stack of wooden crates with fireworks in them. Some how, a couple of the wasps cut a string that held some lanterns up. One broke and the flame landed on a banner that Waspinator had knocked him down when he fell. The fire was approaching the fire works. "Help!" Miko screamed as the flame lit a fuze.

"Oh scrap! Waspinator save Miko! Waspinator, maximize!" He was now in his robot mode. Waspinator tried to get Miko out from under the crates before the fireworks went off. "No, Waspinator too weak! Waspinator shield Miko!" He transformed into wasp mode and when the fireworks went off, he took all of the blast, causing him to break apart.

"No!" Miko shouted as she picked up Waspinator's head. "Jack, why'd you have to die."

"Waspinator won't die. Waspinator has plans." The head said. The majority of waspinator's body was intact, just missing an arm, some bits of the chest and the head. "Miko help waspinator, okay?"

Miko was going to place the head on, but before she did, June ran up and screamed.

"Miko, is Jack?"

"No mom, Waspinator still alive." Miko placed the head on. "Ah, ah, ah ahchoo!" Another stream of energon came out of Waspinator. "Sorry."

As that was going on, Autobot outpost Omega-1...

"Optimus, I just picked up a cybertronian energy signature."

"Where is it Ratchet?" Optimus asked.

"In New York City." There's also momentary spike in energon readings, meaning it's in robot mode.

"Let's put on the news to see if it's being covered."

Bulkhead turned on the TV to find that it was being covered.

"Reports are coming in the councilwoman Liang has been abducted by a swarm as wasps. And that's not the strange part. A man sized robotic wasp calling himself Waspinator has been trying to rescue her, but with little success. I have with here with me this Waspinator." The reporter said. "Could you please tell the viewers what you are?"

"Oh please don't do it Jack." Ratchet said when he noticed the Omnitrix dial on Waspinator's chest.

"Waspinator hero. Waspinator from outer space. Waspinator try to save Liang. But, Waspinator fail. In short, universe hate Waspinator." Waspinator.

"If I recall, you blew up. How are you still alive?"

"Waspinator un-un-un- Ahchoo!" A stream of energon came out of Waspinator's mouth. He managed to aim it at the ground. "Waspinator unsure why can't die."

"So Jack can turn into a 'bot now." Fowler said.

"Correction, he can turn into an insecticon, but he is much too small to be one. There must be something about Insecticon biology that made that form like that."

Later, in the Rust Bucket...

June was speaking with Ratchet via a video chat that Raf had set up.

"So you're saying that Jack's insecticon form is indestructible?" June asked.

"No, no indestructible, he can still be blown to bits, but he's just unkillable."

"And what about the sneezing? I thought you guys couldn't get earth diseases."

"What 'Waspinator' had wasn't a simple cold virus. Based on how it was describe and how it looked on footage, I would say that it's was an energon discharge virus, very common back on Cybertron, but easy to cure."

"Thank you Ratchet." June disconnected the chat. Raf went back to doing abit of research relating to what Clancy said.

"So, Jack, what was it like, to, um, lose your head?" Arcee asked. "Never experienced it and for some morbid reason, I'm kinda curious."

"Well, it was painful at first, but when I realized I wasn't dead, I had time to think. But not for long."

"Interesting."

Jack sneezed again.

"Here, this will help." June handed Jack glass cup full of a green substance.

"Ah! Yuk!" Jack shouted in disgust after smelling the stuff.

"Aw, don't worry, it smells worse than it tastes." June said. "Or is it the other way around? Jack, it's not just you I'm worried about. Seems like your little bug has spread to your Aliens. No telling how it'll affect them."

Jack drank what his mom gave him.

"That was so grim."

"Ah, don't worry, after ten or so doses, you'll start to get used to it."

"And about my aliens being affected It's just Waspinator. I'll prove it." He selected the hologram of Swampfire.

"Swampfire!"

"Ah! He smells worse than he does normally!" Miko shouted. "Gross! And there's snot leaking out of your hands!"

"Ah!" Jack slapped the dial again, turning back into a human. "Okay, note to self, don't use Swampfire."

"I don't know what's worse, the cold, the cure, or the symptoms."

"Got it!" Raf said. "You guys said bug eyes said something about knocking down his apartment building, well, the only apartment downtown left for demolition is at 8610 Chester Street.

8610 Chester Street...

Councilwoman Liang was bound up in a dark room. But not with rope. She was being restrained by a swarm of spiders.

"Please, don't hurt me." She begged.

"Those are black widows. You shouldn't make any, sudden moves." Clancy said. "Our grandfather built this building. We grew up here, just me and my little friends. They are the only ones who understand. And no one is evicting us."

Outside...

The Rust Bucket drove up to the decaying apartment building.

"Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live here." Miko commented.

"Let's all try to stick together." June said as they entered the ruined building.

They walked through the battered halls, holes in the floor, walls, and ceiling. When one steps, you don't know if it could be your last. There was a spooky atmosphere, despite the fact that it was well lit. Raf was sticking close to Arcee, who was also uncertain of what was going to happen next.

They split up unconsciously. Raf and Arcee were still with each other, while Jack, Miko, and June went in separate directions.

Raf and Arcee found a collection of newspaper pieces that were attached to a wall.

One of them caught Raf's attention, its headline read 'Bugs Survive Nuclear Blast.

"They gotta be here somewhere." Arcee said.

"Something tells me we're getting close." Raf said as he turned around to find a mass of a white paper like substance.

"Where are the other?" Arcee asked as her holoform and Raf saw something with four yellow eyes and antennae approach in the shadows.

"Ah!" They both screamed. "Megabug!" Arcee went to shield raf before the 'bug' exited the shadows to reveal that it was nothing more than Jack as Four Arms playing a trick on them.

"Ha ha! Very funny Jack."

"I thought so." He said with a smile on his face.

"Help!" They heard someone scream.

"That sounded like it came from right above us." Raf said.

"I'm on it." Four Arms said, sounding like he had a sore throat. He broke down the door frame and grabbed Raf and Arcee.

Raf could only look in disgust as he saw that Four Arms had hives in his armpits.

"It's your hives." Arcee said as she and Raf held their noses closed. "Your cold must have turned them into-"

"Pus filled pockets of putridness." Miko said as she saw Four Arm's armpits.

"I'm sorry. I just can't help it, I'm sick."

"You're telling me." Arcee said. "I can smell it through my holoform.

"Miko, find mom and get out of here." Jack said before jumping through the ceiling.

Upstairs, Four Arms, Raf, and Arcee ran over to rescue Councilwoman Liang.

"Stop." She whimpered in a half whisper. "Black Widows."

"There has to be some way to help her." Raf said.

"Ah ah ah ahchoo!" Four Arms sneezed up bright green snot onto Liang, getting all of the spiders off of her. "Oops. Sorry."

"Thanks." The councilwoman said nervously.

"Don't mention it."

Arcee and Raf helped Liang up.

"You are trespassing." Clancy said. His eyes glowed green as a swarm of fire ants attacked Four Arms. Clancy jumped onto one of the rafters. "We will rule mankind!" The fire ants tried to attack Arcee, but she dodged their strike.

"Termites!" Liang said as a swarm of the white insects appeared at Raf's feet. They Ate through the floor, causing Raf to fall, but he managed to grab on to the side of the hole. Liang helped him up.

"You wanna be king?" Four Arms wheezed. "Get ready to be crowned!" As Four Arms charged, millions of fire ants surrounded him and eventually crawled up his legs. The Tetramand started scratching all over, wrecking the place in the process.

"You're destroying our home!" Clancy shouted as the support beams were destroyed. A swarm of wasps surrounded Clancy.

"The whole place is coming down!" Raf shouted as he, Arcee, and Liang ran to the door.

"We have to get out of here." Liang said.

"There's no time." Arcee said.

The building collapsed, with June and Miko watching the destruction from the Rust Bucket. She saw Raf, Arcee, and Liang, the middle one covering Raf. She didn't see Jack, or any of his forms though.

"No!" June shouted. "Yes!" She saw a large slab of concrete move. Four Arms lifted it up and had tossed it behind him. He fell down on it before the Omnitrix timed out.

"Ugh. It's a good thing I can't feel my head." Jack said.

Clancy saw what had happened to his bugs.

"No! No! No!" He yelled in distress. "You will all be sorry. We will exterminate the entire city!" He held out his arms and he was picked up by a swarm of millions of wasps.

"This has been a really weird day." Liang rubbed her head.

"Welcome to our world." Raf said.

"Where'd that smelly four armed guy go? I wanted to thank him."

"We'll let him know." Arcee said. "Can you find your way home from here?" Liang nodded.

"So, where do you think Bug Brain crawled off to?" Jack asked as the three of them walked to the Rust Bucket.

"There's only one effective way to exterminate an entire city this big quickly."

"What? Daleks?" Jack asked.

"No, the-. Oh no!" Raf ran to the Rust Bucket, with Jack and Arcee following him. "Mrs Darby, I think I know where the bad bug man is going."

"Where?" June asked.

"He's heading to Indian Point Energy Center."

"Everybody get in ASAP!" June shouted.

They got on the road as soon as possible.

Jack was shivering. "Mom, could you turn up the heat, I'm freezing."

"It's already on full blast. And you're shaking like an earthquake." June said as she drove to the nuclear power plant. "Miko, get him another dose of my San Yu Jen Pien."

"N-n-no!" Jack shouted. "I mean I just finished it off. All gone! I'm sure it's gonna start working any minute now."

"Wow, listen to this." Arcee said as she looked up some stuff on Raf's computer. "Ants can lift ten times their body weight, grasshoppers can jump a hundred times their body length, and cockroaches can hold their breath for over an hour. Why do the 'cons refer to humans as insects again? They seem tougher than even cybertronians. And apparently, they've been around longer than modern cybertronians by about fifty million years."

"We don't need their resumes. We need to know how to squash them." Miko said.

"Duh, I'm just saying that insects are really tough little fraggers. Short of another 'ice age' or a tanker full of pesticide, looks like holding a bug barbecue is our best option."

"And I know just the chef." Jack said.

Indian Point Energy Center...

Jack, Miko, June, Raf, and Arcee entered the power plant. As they walked down a hall, an alarm went off.

"Is that bad?" Arcee asked.

"Well, let me see, an alarm going off in a nuclear power plant, where the fifth most dangerous thing humans have created thus far discovered is produced, yeah, that's bad." June said.

"Core temperature rising. Approaching critical." A voice said.

"He must be fooling around with the reactor's controls!" Raf shouted. They ran to the control room and found that it was trashed.

"Core temperature critical. Meltdown imminent."

"The controls are smashed. We'll have to shut it off manually."

"How?!" Miko shouted.

"Just outside the reactor core, there should be an emergency override system." Raf said.

"Raf, how do you know all this?" June asked.

"I read about it online."

The sound of buzzing was heard. "Came for a front row seat?" Clancy asked as he entered the room.

"If this place goes nuclear, then you're gonna wind up going along with the rest of us!" Jack shouted.

"We don't think so." He was covered by a swarm of cockroaches. "When the reactor goes supercritical, we'll be snug as bugs in a rug."

"Of coarse! Scientists think that cockroaches would be amung the things that would survive the blast." June said.

"So the guy's going to be wearing a bug suit to protect himself from the meltdown?" Jack selected on of his aliens. "Might as well put on mine."

"Big Chill!" The Necrofriggian sniffed. "Is there something burning?" He looked down to find that his feet were making the floor bubble. "I'm now Big Heat, I guess." Big Chill exhaled a stream of fire at Clancy. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Too hot! Too hot!" Big Chill shouted in pain. "Maybe I should try..." (Necrofriggians are normally flame proof, but I'm speculating that they lose that when they have a cold.)

"Heatblast!" Heatblast now the opposite of what he originally was. Now his magma was light blue instead of yellow. He then jumped at Clancy, but was thrown into the window overlooking the reactor.

"You can't escape us." Clancy said a Miko, Raf, June, and Arcee ran out of the room. He ordered a swarm of wasps to pursue them.

"That's it. Time to turn up the AC in here!" He fired a stream of ice at Clancy.

The four others were running as they heard buzzing.

June looked behind them to see the swarm.

"Any of you heard the expression, mean as a hornet?"

"Meltdown in five minutes."

They came up to a fire hose. Miko grabbed it and Arcee twisted the wheel, allowing Miko to spray the wasps that were approaching them.

Jack was having a hard time hitting Clancy, his vision blurred by his cold. But he eventually got the hang of it, using Heatblast's temporary ice powers to his advantage.

The others entered the reactor chamber.

"Core temperature critical. Meltdown in one minute."

Miko and Arcee were trying to hold back the bugs that were approaching them as June and Raf tried to shut it down.

"We can't keep this up much longer!" Arcee shouted.

"Meltdown in thirty seconds."

Heatblast was thrown into the chamber, with Clancy following him.

Heatblast froze the bugs and used part of the blast to slide down.

"Somebody call for a hero?" He asked.

"I don't get it." Miko said. "Since when is that form an ice maker?"

"I guess for some alien, getting a cold isn't just an expression.."

"We can't override it! All the manual controls are overheated!" Raf shouted. "Jack look out!" Raf saw that Clancy was going to charge at Jack. Heatblast generated a dark blue vortex and flung that at the bug armored villain, freezing him solid.

"Core meltdown in ten."

"Stand clear, I got an idea."

"Nine... Eight... Seven..."

Heatblast fired streams of ice at the reactor in hopes of cooling it down. Ice started to cover the reactor.

"Six... Five... Four... Three... Two... Core temperature falling. Returning to below critical limits."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright!" Raf shouted.

"Way to go Jack!" June congratulated.

"Thanks. Now, can we go get some hot chocolate or something?" Jack asked. "Ahchoo!"

As the Rust Bucket drove away from the Energy center.

"The bad guy's on ice, the reactor's chilling, and I think that steam knockout the last of my cold." Jack said triumphantly.

"Don't you just love it when everything works out?" June asked.

Miko was getting some milk out of the fridge. She saw as spider on the ground after she closed the door.

"Sorry mister spider. This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me." Before she could step on the spider though, thousands of bugs entered the Rust Bucket. "Ah! Company! Lots of company!" Miko screamed.

"Jack jumped out of his seat and got ready for battle.

June made the Rust Bucket come to a stop as the windshield was covered by the pests.

They managed to open the door and Clancy's bug clad form walked in.

"We didn't appreciate that cold shoulder you gave us back in the power plant." He said. Arcee tried to punch him, but he managed to throw her to the back of the camper.

"It's hero time!" Jack transformed into a man sized green and insect with four eyestalks, a sharp tail, a black head, four insect legs and two three fingered hands.

"Stinkfly!" He shouted in a squeaky voice. He fired a goo out of his eye ducts, but found that that wasn't working. He got an idea when he remember the San Yu Jen Pien. He grabbed the jar that had the foul smelling stuff inside it. "Come and get it!" All of the insects swarmed around Stinkfly, even the ones on Clancy.

"What's happening? Stop!"

"Follow me!" Stinkfly said after he opened the window and flew out of it, the bugs following him because of what he was carrying. He flew over a cliff and dropped it, the earth bugs following the foul smelling stuff. He flew back to the road and transformed back into a human.

"Hehe. No hard feeling?" Clancy said nonchalantly. He was then punched out of the RV by June.

"Good. That guy was really starting to bug me." Miko said.

"Jeez mom. Where'd you learn to hit like that?"

"Self defence class. Jack, freeze him, I'll be right back, I'm calling the police."

Jack transformed into Big Chill and froze him to the guard rail.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. This is the debut of one of Jack's first cybertronian form. And there will be more. An yes, Waspinator is an insecticon, but he's only fifty percent insecticon, he's half human since the insecticons are a race that has a hive mind, like the nanochips and how Nanomech is half human. And I had waspinator say maximize instead of terrorize because this Waspinator isn't a predacon. He's closer to a maximal.


	7. Cybernetic

Above the Earth...

Two disk shaped drones were launched from the ship belonging to Vilgax.

"The drones have launched. Equipped with the improved internal tracking system, they shall be able of find and retrieve the Omnitrix." A humanoid drone said to the cylinder that contained the still under repair body of Vilgax.

"They may find it, but retrieving it may not be easy." Vilgax rasped, squinting his eyes in frustration. "Whoever possess the Omnitrix continues to be an opponent of extreme danger, and inspiring brilliance."

In a convenience store somewhere in Pennsylvania...

Miko Nakadai walked past a stack of boxes of cookies with her stomach rumbling.

"Man, I'm starved." She said. She grabbed one of the boxes that was on the bottom, causing them all to fall on Raf, who was reading a magazine. On a side note, isn't displaying stuff like that asking for trouble?

"Smoove move Nakadai." Raf said, containing his anger.

They paid for what they wanted and went outside to find June and Jack washing the windows of the Rust Bucket.

"Nice artwork Miko." Jack said sarcastically as he wiped away the words 'wash me'.

"You know, it makes a statement." She said.

A laser blast hit an armored car,

"No. That's a statement!" Raf shouted.

The blast came from guns wielded by a trio of leather jacket wearing thugs that wore motorcycle helmets that had eyes and teeth added to them.

"What are you looking at?" The one whose helmet had eyes like a cat's painted in green asked the group of four.

"Jack, Miko, Raf! Get behind cover!" June said as the leader of this trio aimed at them.

"Jack, I think it's hero time." Miko said.

"Okay. Four Arms should deal with these three no problem and draw their fire away from mom." Jack selected Four Arms.

Jack's whole body moved backwards evolutionary wise, his posture becoming more suited for crouching. A tail grew out of his tailbone until it was the length of the rest of his body. His skull became more primitive. Blue fur grew all over his body light blue on his back, most of his legs, his head except for his face, and forearms, dark blue fur growing on his tail. His skin turned dark blue. His legs became digitigrade. He gained a second set of eyes. His arms split into two sets of arms that ended in three fingered hands.

"Spidermonkey!" The primate like alien announced in a voice that sound kinda similar to Jack's but was a bit more high pitched, but not too much. "Not the four armed alien I wanted, but he'll have to do." Spidermonkey climbed up the side of the Rust Bucket and shot a web out of his tail at the thugs and managed to take the gun from one of them and used it to strike the group as a whole.

*Monkey sounds* "Go!" Spidermonkey said to his mom and his friends before leaping from the top of the Rust Bucket to the armored car. "You okay?" He asked the driver of the armored car.

"Ah!" The driver screamed before running away.

"Hmm, wonder if that was a yes?" Spidermonkey was shot by a yellow beam of energy fire by the gun operated by the leader of the gang.

He was sent flying into a pillar of concrete holding the cover of the gas station up. The leader fired again. Spidermonkey fired a strand of webbing at the armor car and avoided the blast, however, the laser hit a pump, causing it to explode. Spidermonkey jumped up to the top of the cover before leaping off, firing a strand of webbing and grabbing onto it with his hands and pulling it to increase the force of his kick. He knocked the leader to the ground, cracking the helmet. He also managed to punch the other two away.

"Now let's see who's underneath the masks." Spidermonkey said. He fired two strands of webbing and used them to pull of the helmets, revealing two women, one had tan skin and blue hair, the other had black hair and white skin. "Huh? You're all women. I don't wanna hurt y- ah!" Spidermonkey was shot in the back by the leader, who had red hair and white skin.

"Aw, aren't you a gentle-chimp." The leader said mockingly.

"Clober her!" Miko shouted.

Spidermonkey had one of the guns pointed to his head. However, before she could fire, the two drones that were launched earlier by Vilgax's ship attacked. They fired their red laser beams at Spidermonkey, destroying the armored car when the Arachnichimp jumped out of the way.

"Hey, this is my heist!" The leader of the gang shouted.

"You can have it Rojo!" The blue haired woman said as she and the black haired woman ran off.

As Jack tried to take out the drones by shooting them with his webs, Rojo came up from behind him with the laser gun pointed at him. June grabbed a tire and tossed it at Rojo, knocking her over. "Jack! Those drones must be after the Omnitrix!" June shouted. Rojo got up and pointed her gun at June.

"You get yours granny!" Rojo fire her weapon, using it to break down the cover, causing chunks of concrete to fall down. One big one hit June in the back.

"Mrs Darby!" Miko and Raf shouted.

"No!" Spidermonkey yelled. He decided to get rid of the drones quickly. One was to his left, the other to his right. They both fired at the same time. Spidermonkey jumped to avoid their beam, causing them to fire at eachother. "Nice try." He said after he landed. He then shot a web at one of the drones and slung it at Rojo. Spidermonkey saw that his mom was unconscious.

"We need to get her to a hospital!" Raf shouted as Spidermonkey cleared some of the debris off of June.

"On it! I'm calling 911 right now." Miko said as she dialed 911 on her phone. She saw that Spidermonkey had June slung over his shoulder. "Jack, what're you doing?"

"There's no time for that. The hospital's up the street." Spidermonkey said. "You two stay here. I'll be right back." Spidermonkey fire a web at a building and swung to the hospital. Miko and Raf saw that Rojo was waking up and hid behind the Rust Bucket.

"Who were you freaks?" Rojo said as she inspected the drone that was used to knock her out. She removed the head. The drone's optics came online and it then stuck something on Rojo's neck. It injected what I can only assume are nanites into her, turning her skin red, her eyes into red optics, and her fingers into eight inch metal talons. It also added blades on the sides of her arm that looked like the ones on her hands, a second set of eyes, and shoulder pads that were red and looked like her optics. She now had four eyes that looked like the ones on the drone. She was now what can only be described as an E.V.O.

"Freeze!" A police officer shouted as a few cop cars drove up.

"Ha! I already did my time!" Rojo as her shoulder pads unfolded on mechanical arms and fired red beams at the policemen. "It's time for you to pay!" The cops jumped out of the way as her blasts hit the cars, destroying them. She grabbed one of the bags of money that she and her former accomplices were trying to steal, laughing triumphantly. "This is gonna be a blast." The sound of groaning was heard, but Rojo paid it no mind.

Later, at the hospital...

June was lying on a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around her head. Miko and Raf were sitting on a couple of chairs that were next to the bed. Jack was speaking with the doctor who had been treating June.

"Your mother has suffered a severe concussion. She'll be out for a couple more hours." The doctor said. "She also has several lacerations and a broken leg.

"She's gonna be okay, right?" Jack asked.

"She's remarkably strong, even for a woman her age. She'll be fine after some rest." The doctor looked at June's charts. "Now, it says on her admittance form that she was hit by a car bumper. Did somebody back into her?"

"Actually, the car bumper flew through the air after this robot drone blew up the car." Miko said.

"Vivid imagination you have their," He check for a name on June's charts. "Miko is it? It's been known that it's a good coping mechanism for situations like these." The doctor walked out of the room.

Vilgax's ship...

"The drones were destroyed." The humanoid drone said.

"Send out more!" Vilgax ordered.

"We may not need to my liege." The humanoid robot pressed some buttons on a handheld device. "It seems the drones have somehow merged. I'm somehow receiving one combined signal, and that signal is on the move."

"Hmm. Perhaps one head is better than two. Yes." (When you read that, say it like Beast Wars Megatron.)

Earth, at a jewelry store...

Rojo had managed to scare everyone out of the store. She used her shoulder mounted lasers to melt the glass of a display case. He grabbed a bunch of rings and held them in her hand, but she squeezed too hard and crushed them into dust. Wait, how'd that happen?. "What?! No!" She through the gold dust to the ground. "They're worthless now!" Apparently, somebody doesn't know how valuable gold is. She turned to a blond woman and was about to take her anger out on her, but suddenly, she felt a searing pain in her head, causing her to stumble back. The blond woman ran away.

"Listen to me, who ever you are." The voice of Vilgax said in Rojo's mind.

"Where are you? Who are you? And how did you get inside my head?" Rojo moaned.

"No questions! You are here to serve me!"

"Guess again! I work for me and only me!" A jolt of electricity caused the cyborg great pain. In Rojo's mind, she was falling in a space thea was yellow, sickly green, and red.

"You now possess power you could have never imagined. But unless you find a way to use it..." Vilgax's head appeared a Rojo stopped falling. She saw the face of the alien tyrant and flinched in fear. "It will be worthless. Fulfill my command, and I will teach you. Fail me, and I will turn you to dust!"

"So what do you want boss?" Rojo asked.

"A piece of valuable technology, missing from my possession, and luckily, you are already programed to find it."

Back at the Hospital...

Jack was pacing back and forth while June was still unconscious, Raf was playing a computer game, and Miko was listening to music. Raf was worried about how Jack was taking this and paused his game to talk with Jack.

"Jack, you heard the Doctor, she's gonna be fine." Raf said.

"I'm worried about her." Jack said.

"I'd worry about how some girl kick that new alien's but." Miko said.

"Hey, my mom taught me not to hit girls."

"Good to know." Miko said. She flung her shoe at Jack, hitting his leg.

"Ow!" Jack yelped. "What was that for?"

"No reason."

"Miko, my mom had a chunk of concrete fall on her and you're taking this like a joke?"

"No, it's just, I wanted to get you to lighten up. You're being such a Darby Downer." Miko said. "It may not seem like I care, but I do. She was a buzzkill when she first found out about the 'bots and started coming to the base, but going on this trip with you and her, your mom seems pretty cool."

"Thanks."

Jack walked into the hall and leaned against the window. Miko and Raf followed him.

"You okay? Normally stuff like this doesn't bother you." Raf said.

"Maybe I could turn into Upgrade and get inside the machines she's hooked up to and see if I can't make her better."

"Jack, that's not going to work." Raf said.

"Okay, maybe I could turn into Grey Matter, to, improve the equipment." Jack activated the Omnitrix, which sent out a signal that Rojo picked up. She was on top of a skyscraper and found where the signal came from. She zoomed in on it and saw it.

"There you are." Rojo said, grinning evilly.

Back in the hospital, Jack wasn't taking things well. He kicked over a trash can in frustration.

"Just relax, everything's going to be okay." Raf said. He then noticed something approaching them. Rojo jumped through the wind, breaking the glass. She wasn't hurt at all and immediately moved towards Jack and Miko while Raf cowered behind her.

"Give me the Omnitrix!" Rojo demanded. She pointed one of her shoulder blasters at Jack.

"You want it, come and get it!" Jack transformed into one of his favorite aliens, but that just wasn't the case. "Big Chill! Or Goop, Goop is good, I suppose." Miko and the Polymorph ran away from the cyborg, avoiding one of her blasts. Rojo gave chase. When she made it to the corner that Goop and Miko had run down, she blasted at them twice, one hitting the wall, the other hitting a cart that a nurse pushed, causing the cart to explode.

Miko and Jack came to another corner and ran down the hall, but Jack thought of a better way of getting away from Rojo.

"Miko, the stairs!" Goop said. He opened the door and he and Miko went it. Goop jumped down the gap between the flights.

"Jack!"

"Need a lift!" Goop said. He had extended his legs so that he was as tall as the building. "Come on Miko! I can't stay like this forever." Miko was picked up by Goop. "Going down!"

When they reached the ground floor, Goop, now back to having his normal proportions, set Miko down.

"Jack, that thing looked like the girl who whuped your but back at the gas station, it seemed like she merged with the-"

"Robot drones!" Goop said.

Rojo had blasted open the door and jumped down the stairs. Goop and Miko were running down another hall as she continued to shoot at them, but she, like many henchmen, had the aim of stormtroopers and missed every shot.

"That would be awesome, if she wasn't trying to kill us." Miko said. The pair exited the hospital and were in a ambulance parking lot. The hid behind one of the emergency vehicles right before Rojo blasted open the door that they came out of.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way." She deployed her second blaster and use both to fire a beam at the nearby mountain and cause a rockslide.

"Humungousaur should be able to handle this." Goop said. He slapped the dial again. "Heatblast! Oh come on; I need muscle and I get an alien candle."

"If scissors cuts paper, doesn't fire melt rock?" Miko asked. Heatblast shrugged. He fired a stream of flames at the incoming boulders, but that only seemed to make things worse. "What the?" She was dumbstruck when she saw that the boulders were ignited.

"Go! I got another idea!" Heatblast commanded. Miko went to the opposite side of the parked ambulances. The Pyronite shot a stream of flame at the parked vehicles, melting them so that they formed a barricade to stop the rocks from destroying the hospital. Little did he know, but that little act of constructive vandalism was caught on camera.

"Hospital saved!"

"Yeah, but what about the people down hill?" Miko pointed to the city that was in the path of the flaming rocks.

"Ah bullshit." Heatblast said. "I hate it when you're right." He ran to try to intercept the boulders. Rojo jumped on him, knocking him over. She pointed her blasters at him. "I don't have time for this!" Heatblast made his head hotter and forced her off. He got back up and jumped off of a cliff and slid down, and came to a stop. He saw that the boulders were about to make it to the bridge that led to the city. The men who were working on it ran way from the flaming rocks. "Sorry about this." He blasted the bridge, destroying it and causing the boulders to fall in the river.

Heatblast was grabbed by Rojo, who threw him into a dump truck. While hovering, she fired a bunch of energy bolts at the flaming alien, destroying the truck and everything around it. When the smoke cleared, she found that Heatblast was unharmed.

"You want me? I'm right here." He bowed. Rojo charged at him. Heatblast ducked and Rojo was hovering over a truck that was leaking oil. Heatblast snapped his fingers and a single spark fell on the oil, igniting it and causing the tanker to explode, sending Rojo flying. "See yah!"

Later...

Jack was explaining to his mom where he went.

"When I was going to try to help by using one of my aliens, she must have picked up the signal it gave off, leading her right to you." Jack said.

"Well, since they've moved me into a new room and you haven't gone alien since then, we're safe." June said with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Jack asked. "But what about tomorrow? It's too dangerous for you to be around me. If I never found the Omnitrix, none of this new weird stuff would be happening.

"Yeah, but since it can't come off, there's nothing we can do about it."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Well, Jack, I don't think it should come off." June said.

"But why mom? I thought you were against stuff like risking my life."

"Jack, I'm a mom, it's my job to worry. But I worry about you falling in with a bad crowd or risking your life by racing. But you're putting your life on the line to protect people." June said, her smile not fading. "You used to say that you wanted to be a superhero, that or an astronaut. Maybe that's why you liked that Fourze show so much. And just think about it, you're probably one of the few people who has got to be both before they turn twenty."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jack said. 'I still don't want her to get hurt. Her or Arce- wait, where is she?'

Downtown...

Rojo had landed in the middle of the road. She stood up from the crater she stood in and dusted herself off. She suddenly felt that pain again and found herself back in that mental vision of Vilgax.

"The Omnitrix, where is it?" The squid faced tyrant asked.

"I couldn't get it. And how come you didn't tell me I'd be fighting a superhero?" Rojo responded boldly to the face of the being who instills great fear even while he is in his weakened state. "I'm through!"

Vilgax's head just swallowed her. Wait, what? She was falling through a dark space.

"Get me the Omnitrix. And if you fail again, your meaningless criminal life will be over. Now this time, make him come to you." He ordered.

Back at the hospital...

Jack left a note at the foot of the bed as Miko, June, and Raf slept.

"I'm doing this for you guys." He said quietly before leaving the room.

Jack left the hospital and went to a park where he sat on a bench. He watched a boy and his mom fly kites together. He heard something on a radio.

"Reports say that the armored assailant has incredible fire power." The man on the radio said. "And has blown up several barricades before arriving at the police academy training center just outside of Springfield.

Jack went into one of the restroom buildings. "Good, nobody's here." Jack activated the Omnitrix. "Time to go XLR8." Jack was about to transform but he thought about the situation. "Maybe I should try..." He selected his other speedy form. "Fast Track!" He announced. He exited the building and sped off to the police academy.

Back at the hospital...

"Jack, where'd you go?" Miko asked after she woke up. She saw the note that Jack had left. "'Dear Mom, Miko, and Raf. I care about you three too much to keep putting you guys in danger. It's better this way. Love, Jack."

"Miko, what is it?" June asked after she woke up.

Miko turned on the news and found that the Rojo's attack on the police training center was being covered.

"The siege of the police training center continues. Early reports say that several officers have been injured."

"Jack's gone. But I think I know where he went. I gotta go get Arcee." Miko handed the note to June.

"I'm coming too." June said as she started to get out of the bed after reading the note.

"You're gonna stay right in bed." Miko said.

"Miko, I know you too well. You can't go alone. It's too dangerous." June said. MIko pressed a button on the bed control, causing it to recline. "I can't get up now!"

"That's the point." Miko said before she ran off.

"Miko! Get back here! Ahg! Raf, go follow her!" June shouted.

"Yes ma'am."

Miko had managed to hitch a ride on an ambulance. Before it left, Raf managed to get in too.

At the police academy...

Rojo was tearing up the place. Tossing flaming cars, using her lasers to destroy the buildings, and more, all to draw out the Omnitrix user Jack Darby. She had just retracted her shoulder mounted cannons when she was struck by a blue blur. But this wasn't Sonic the Hedgehog, no, she was speed punched by Fast Track.

"Looks like you got the party started without me." Fast Track taunted. Rojo grabbed the Citarkayah's ankle and tossed him to the ground. Before he could get up, Rojo was on her feet and kicked Fast Track into a parked car. Rojo approached the blue and black alien with her blasters deployed.

"He wants his Omnitrix, he can have it. This is getting pretty fun."

"Who's 'he'?" Fast Track said after rubbing his head. Fast Track using a move similar to Kabuto's clock up attack, punched and kicked Rojo dozens of times in rapid succession.

Unknowingly, Fast Track and force Rojo and himself into the line of fire of a tank, no doubt owned but the police department. Both Rojo and Fast Track had a face of shock when its gun was pointed at the two of them. Fast Track however, being(warning, bad joke ahead), quick on his feet ran away from the line of fire in a millisecond, was a couple dozen yards away from Rojo. When the tank fired, its blast struck Rojo, engulfing her in a cloud of smoke. Fast Track saw something exit the smoke a few second later. It was the tank, and it was going to shoot the blue alien. But the tank was suddenly lifted up by Rojo. Seriously, there's a Red Vs Blue joke here somewhere, I'll try to find it, I just don't remember what it's filed under.

"Nice try..." Rojo said as she held the tank over her head with no problem. "But 'zippy' is all mine." Before she through the tank the driver and gunner jumped out of the tank and ran away. She threw it, but the moment before it landed, Fast Track ran and ended up behind Rojo. Rojo tried to slash him, but he dodged and ended up on the other side of her, where Fast Track side kicked her, then punched her in the gut, then delivered an uppercut that sent her flying. Rojo smiled before blasting Fast Track, who was catching his breath and didn't react fast enough. The blast sent Fast Track flying over some of the building, making him land near the ambulance that Miko and Raf were in that had just pulled up.

"Who needs help?" One of the paramedics asked after he and his colleague got out of the vehicle.

"That would be me!" Fast Track shouted from the crater he formed when he landed. Rojo had leaped over the buildings as well and landed on Fast Track. She grabbed him by the neck. The Citrakayah tried to get out of her grip, but couldn't. Rojo tossed Fast Track to the ground and approached the Ambulance. The paramedics ran away as she got closer. Miko and Raf poked their heads out of the compartment that normally held patients. Fast Track got up and saw his friends in danger.

"Miko! Raf!" He shouted as he ran to save them. He grabbed them and took them to an alleyway where he had a chat with them. "What are you two doing here?!"

"Your mom told me to get Miko back here." Raf said. "But as for why Miko came..."

"It's better this way... Ring any bells?" Miko frustratedly asked.

"It's too dangerous." An omen of bad news started to be heard. "Wait, so does that beeping noise." Fast Track was back to being Jack Darby. "Ah great!" Jack heard the sound of Rojo's hover tech. "Come on! Let's get moving!" Jack said as he got Miko and Raf to run from Rojo.

The trio ran down the alley and made it to an open area that had an obstacle course. Jack led the way as MIko and Raf followed him. They ran through the course as Rojo caught up with them. Rojo landed and ran after them. The trio avoided her by hiding behind target used for target shooting.

"Jack, you can't just run away when someone or something attacks us." Miko criticized.

"Miko, don't tell me what I can and can't do." Jack retorted. "This is my fight, my weird watch. Not yours."

"Yeah, but you're our weird best friend that makes the Autobots seems normal." Raf said.

They heard a laser blast and looked over their makeshift chest high wall to see that Rojo was at most only six yards away from them.

"In here." Raf shouted. They ran into a gym with a few treadmills, some weight lifting machine, and other equipment. Most of the lights were off so there was kinda dark. Raf's phone started to ring. He answered it. "Hello? It's for you." He handed the phone to Jack.

"Hello?"

"Jack, are you there? I need to tell you something." June said over the phone line.

"Mom! Can we talk later?" Jack responded. "I've got an indestructible robot thing chasing me that none of my aliens can take out."

"Jack, if you can't destroy it from the outside, take it down from the inside." June suggested.

"That's it! Thanks!" Jack hung up and handed the phone back to Raf.

"Looks like you're not better off without your mom either, huh?" Miko said.

"What did she tell you to do Jack?" Raf asked as Jack pressed the two buttons on the Omnitrix. This sent out a signal that Rojo picked up.

"Take it down from the inside." Jack said as he cycled through the holograms until he got to the one of a galvanic mechamorph. But before Jack could transform, Rojo shot through the roof but, she missed. Jack pressed the dial down.

Jack's skin turned into black living metal. Green lines covered his body in a circuit like pattern. His facial features turned into a simple circle. He whole body got more meaty until it was like he had catcher's mitts for hands.

"Upgrade!" He announced as after his transformation was complete."

Rojo had fired a few more time, making a hole that she jumped into, landing in the workout room. She looked around for Jack, now in the form known as Upgrade. When she got to where Miko and Raf were hiding, she looked around to find nothing. Little did she know that Upgrade was above her spiderman style on the ceiling.

Upgrade let go of the ceiling and dropped down, landing on Rojo's back. He tried to merge with her, and was partially successful. Rojo was in immense pain as she tried to get Upgrade off of her. Upgrade meanwhile was in the same area Rojo was in when she was contacted by Vilgax.

"Listen to every word..." The Chimera Sui Generis warlord warned. "Be afraid... You can not run. You can not hide from me. I will find you. And when I do, I will retrieve my Omnitrix and destroy you."

Rojo had managed to rip Upgrade off of her and tossed him at a concrete pillar.

"Uh. Man that was trippy." Upgrade said, stretching his body a bit unconsciously due to the stress. Rojo fired a blast at the Mechamorph. Upgrade dodged the blast and ran to the weight lifting machine that was behind Rojo. He possessed it and turned it into what seemed to be a stationary robot that mostly looked the same except it had Upgrades' Omnitrix dial on what used to be the seat and two arms were one of the handles was. "Time to work out!" Upgrade said as he tried to grab her. He grabbed on to her forearms and pulled her towards the stack of weights on the machine and banged her head against it. Upgrade let go of her before he went to the treadmill she landed on, using that to send her flying into one of the machines, breaking it. She got up and fired at Upgrade, but she was still disoriented and missed, hitting the support pillars instead. The building was starting to fall apart.

Three members of a swat team entered the building.

"Duck!" Miko shouted. They turned to see one of Rojo's beams heading at them. They did as the japanese girl suggested and were not harmed. After which they fired at Rojo. Upgrade jumped on Rojo and held her down.

"Now this won't hurt a bit." Upgrade merged with Rojo a second time, only this time she was too weak to fight back.

"Oww! Get out of me!" Rojo shouted as Upgrade got off her body.

"Okay, I may have lied." Rojo's skin went back to normal as the metal bits fell off, which begs the question, where did all that extra stuff come from?

"I'm... Normal." Rojo stated in disbelief.

"Abnormal is way more like it."

"Look, I don't know what came over me. Please, you gotta help me." Rojo pleaded as she noticed that her gun was in the wreckage. Wait what?" "I'm just a girl." She grabbed her gun and pointed it at Upgrade.

"Guess what? So am I!" Miko jumped off a bench used for bench presses and delivered a sidekick to Rojo, knocking her over. They noticed that the building was about to collapse.

"Miko, Raf, we gotta go." Upgrade said. He grabbed Rojo and the gun and carried the unconscious woman and her firearm out of the building. Miko and Raf were the first ones out, followed by the SWAT team, and then Upgrade. He handed Rojo to a police officer. "She's all yours." The officer looked at Rojo then at Upgrade, who was leaving with the two kids and the gun.

"Sargent, should I try to get the firearm back from that creature?"

"Let him keep it."

The next morning...

June was exiting the hospital using crutches while Jack helped her along.

"It's good to get out of here and back on the road."

"So, Jack what happened back there in the gym? It looked like you were possessed or something." Miko asked

"I don't really know. It's like when I went upgrade I saw this alien. We were both floating through space and he was talking to me." Jack said. "It looked kinda like he had an octopus on his head and kinda sounded like Starscream." June went wide eyed for some reason. "He said I should be afraid." Jack noticed his mom's worried expression. "Mom, you look kinda tense, is there anything bothering you?"

"I'm fine." June said. "And you'll be fine too. As long as we stay together."

"Sounds good to me."

Jack opened the door to the camper. When the four entered the Rust Bucket, they noticed that someone was sleeping on the couch. It was Arcee's holoform. She woke up when she heard the door close.

"Hey guys, what I'd miss?" She asked.

Chapter end


	8. Gwen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre Chapter Author's note: Some people might not like this decision that I've made. But when you finish this chapter, read the author's note at the end. Now, in the words of Haruato Soma; It's showtime!

New Orleans, Louisiana...

After a week of driving, and a few stops along the way to deal with some minor incidents, Jack, June, Miko, Raf, and Arcee had arrived in the port city of New Orleans.

"So, why are we this close to the gulf?" Miko asked.

"My niece is staying here for a few days, and it's been a few years since I've last seen her."

"But New Orleans is a big city, she could be anywhere." Arcee said.

"That would be true, if I was to surprise her. But she and I planned this. She's at a witchcraft museum."

"Wait, witchcraft as in magic? Magic doesn't exist, right?" Raf

"Well, it depends on what you mean by magic. To the less advanced, something like my new ID mask would be a form of magic." Arcee said. "But there's also some aliens that use what is similar to magic, I just don't remember what they're called."

Later...

After parking the RV, the Darby family and their friends made their way to the entrance of the museum. An eighteen year old girl with green eyes, orange-red hair that was in a ponytail, and was wearing a red shirt, a black vest, grey pants, and black flats. When she saw June she ran up to her and gave her a hug.

"Aunt June!" She said. "You're late."

"Sorry to keep you waiting Gwen." June replied. "You've grown so much. How long has it been?"

"Seven, eight years maybe." Gwen responded. "Hey Jack, how's Alamo been?"

"Boring as ever. Why else do you think I agreed to come?"

"Yeah, sometimes I wish Bellwood was like that. Care to introduce me to your friends?" Gwen asked when she noticed Miko, Raf, and Arcee.

"Oh, sorry, this is Miko."

"Hey Gwen, if you're Jack's cousin, why is your hair a different color than his?Why did he never tells about you? what are you doing here in Louisiana?" Miko asked in rapid succession.

"Quite the talkative one, aren't you?"

"This is Rafael, but we call him Raf."

"Hey." Raf said sheepishly. Gwen thought Raf's reaction was cute and smiled a bit.

"And this is Sadie, or Arcee, as we call her sometimes." Arcee gritted her teeth when she heard Jack say that.

"RC? Where did that nickname come from?" Gwen asked.

"That's personal." Arcee half hissed.

"Okay. Now that we're all introduced, let's head in shall we?" June suggested.

Later...

Miko was wandering around the exhibit while Gwen, Raf, Arcee, Jack, and June were still with the main group.

"And behind this impenetrable glass is the recently discovered and only known existing copy of the Archamada book of spells." The tour guide said.

"It contains ancient witchcraft and rituals from the late sixteen hundreds." Gwen and the guide said in unison.

"Maybe you should work here dear." The guide said as she moved on the the next display.

"Don't let mummy face get to you." Miko said. "She's probably older than that spell book."

Both of them laughed.

"It sounds like you know a lot about this stuff Gwen, care to elaborate?" June asked.

However, before Gwen could respond, the ground started shaking. And then everyone start floating.

"Okay. This wasn't mentioned in the brochure." June said as everyone in the room hit the ceiling.

A cloud of red smoke entered the room from a window. It went to the case where the spell book was. When the red smoke cleared, there was a man with bone white skin, a skull tattooed on his face, and black hair. He wore a black hooded robe with red trim and collar that had five pieces of metal on it, each one had a different symbol carved in. He held a staff that had a bird's head on the end.

"The Archamada book of spells. All of it's power shall soon be mine!" The man said with a deep threatening voice. "Thata mey goof!" One of the symbols glowed yellow. The glass case exploded.

"Jack, what are you doing?" Gwen asked when she saw Jack activate the Omnitrix.

"No time to explain cuz. Right now it's hero time."

The man heard this and pointed his staff at the ceiling, causing everyone to fall.

"XLR8!" The raptor like alien announced. He was the first to land on the ground. He ran over and took on of the ropes holding up a large tapestry and tied it to a support pole. XLR8 took another rope and tied it to a table, allowing the people to slide down safely. "Everybody out!"

"Jack, be careful, you don't know what tricks this guy has up his sleeves." June cautioned as the civilians vacated the premises.

"Dude, if you want a book, try the library." XLR8 lowered his face mask.

"Berdi Mordo Nata!" A stream of fire came out of the staff and ignited the tapestry. The now flaming woven cloth pursued XLR8. He ran up the wall, causing the flame to die down. The skull face man fired shards of red crystal at the speedster. The shards exploded on impact, but luckily, Jack was able to dodge them. XLR8 then made his way back to the floor, but he was able to stop the alien from striking him by blinding him by creating a bright light from his staff. XLR8 was forced to shield his eyes. He tripped and ran into couple of display cases.

"Foolish shape changer, did you really think that you could strike me?"

"Um, actually yes." XLR8 joked. "Show's over, never got your name." XLR8 dodged a blast of energy.

"If you truly must know child. I am Hex, master magician, and you wi-" Two barrels that were for a second illuminated with pinkish magenta light fell on him. Another two were thrown at him. "Who dares?!"

"Guess we have his attention." Gwen said, her hands still glowing that same pinkish magenta.

"In hindsight, this probably wasn't a good idea." Arcee said. Hex turned to face them and sent them back by just thinking of the spell to do so. That gave XLR8 the opportunity to strike Hex, running around him in a tornado like fashion, and struck him multiple times. One of the charms that was on Hex's collar fell off. Hex was then funneled to the ground by the extraterrestrial speedster, knocking him out.

Jack picked up the Charm and held it in his claws.

"Nice job Jack." Gwen congratulated.

"Thanks. Just doing what I need to do, and keeping it low key." XLR8 still had his visor down, so nobody could see his devious smile.

Later...

Jack, still XLR8 had decided to bask in the glory just this once, just to see what it's like. People were applauding him and taking photo's of him.

"Who's your hero?" XLR8 said gleefully. Hex was being hauled off in a stretcher.

In the Rust Bucket...

"All we're saying Jack is that you didn't stop that creep all by yourself." Arcee said.

"Your girlfriend's right Jack." Gwen said. "She, June, and I helped saved your rear. I didn't hear us getting praised back there."

"First off, Arcee's not my girlfriend." Jack said. "And second, do you want to be followed because you're a friend of the creature from the news?"

"Well, you didn't have to soak up the lime light like that. How was it by the way?"

"Oh, it was pretty great, hearing people praising me, but that's by no means something I want to do more than once."

"Okay, but before we move on, I need to be caught up to speed with what's been going on. Start with 'Sadie' here. Why's she wearing an ID mask?"

"How'd you know?"

"The mana you give off is different from a human." Gwen said. Her eyes glowed pinkish magenta. "You're definitely an alien, who's both a living being, and a machine." Her eyes returned to normal.

"What's mana?" Miko asked.

"It's not your guy's turn to ask a question, it's mine. Jack, what's that watch thing?"

"It's called the Omnitrix."

"Omnitrix. And as for what mana is, it's an energy that all living beings give off." Gwen answered. "Now, what does the Omnitrix do?"

"It lets Jack turn into a bunch of awesome alien super heroes!" Miko joyfully said. "Jack transform into Waspinator, no, Grey Matter, maybe Rip Jaws."

"Or how about..." Jack held the Omnitrix out of Miko's line of sight so that he could surprise her. "Big Chill!" He transformed. "Now cuz, where did you learn about ID masks?"

"You pick up a few things hanging around Kevin. He does some, um, let's just say less than lawful deals. So, what've you been using that watch for?"

Jack reverted back into human form. "Well, ever since I got it, I've been using it to stop what ever trouble we come across." Jack said.

"Final question, did you really have to shout 'who's your hero?'?"

"I don't really know why. Speaking of that incident, do want this?" Jack tossed the charm that fell off of Hex.

"Sure, thanks Jack." Gwen replied. "But wait, you found this, it's yours."

"Nah, I don't really collect trophies. I'm a hero not some kinda mercenary."

"What do you mean?"

"I gave Raf a bit of a robot that I trashed as Big Chill the day I got the watch, I gave Miko the hoverboard that Tetrax said I could have, and mom, well..."

"June's packing heat." Arcee held the gun Jack swiped from Rojo.

"Where'd you get that?" Gwen asked.

Somewhere, more specifically, the Ambulance Hex was hauled off in...

Hex was hooked up to a bunch of machines ment to monitor his vitals. Suddenly, one of his charms glowed. His eyes opened and he spoke.

"My destiny shall be fulfilled."

The door of the ambulance was blown off. The ambulance driver hit the brakes as hard a possible. Hex exited the ambulance by hovering.

At a resturaunt...

Miko, Jack, Raf, Gwen, and June were eating at a rather fancy restaurant. Miko and Gwen were eating crawfish, and were fighting over the last one.

"Miko, I've been counting, you've had eleven crawfish to my nine." Gwen said as the Charm that Jack gave her and that she made into a necklace started to glow.

"Well, sounds like it's time to make it an even dozen!" Miko went in to grab the mudbug with her fork, but Gwen slapped her hand, making her fork go flying. It landed prongs first on a waitress's foot, causing her a bit of noticeable pain, but no bleeding. She flinched in pain, causing a glass that she had on a tray. The glass went up to a ceiling lamp, causing it to rotate. The glass was then flung into the kitchen, where it hit a chef in the back of the neck, causing him to flinch and send a cart that had a bowl of live crawdads into the dining area. The cart hit the table, causing the bowl to fly up, spilling its contents onto Miko's head. Gwen took that chance to grab the last crawfish and eat it.

"Now I'm full." Gwen said triumphantly.

"Yeah, but they're not!" This rube Goldberg machine of human suffering ended with two of the freshwater shrimp crawling up Miko's nose, causing her great discomfort, which she vocalized.

Raf, Miko, June, and Gwen laughed at Miko's expense. Jack couldn't help but chuckle a bit. But he stopped when he decided to go help Miko out.

"Mom, can I take Miko back to the Rust Bucket of get those bugs out?"

"Sure, I'll-" June was interrupted by Gwen.

"Aunt June, I'll pay for it, it's the least I can do after I caused that to happen."

"Oh you're such a dear Gwen! So much better behaved than Ben."

"He's gotten better since you last saw him."

Jack and Miko exited the restaurant and headed into the Rust Bucket. Miko was still in a lot of pain. When they got in, they saw that Arcee was doing some push ups. Arcee noticed that something was wrong with Miko.

"Jack, what happened? Did Miko get food poisoning?"

"No, a couple of crawfish crawled up her nose."

"Ew!" Arcee was disgusted.

"Don't worry, I have just the alien for the job." Jack was going to select Ghostfreak, but he got "Big Chill! Hmm, he'll have to do." The Necrofriggian turned his arm transparent and reached into Miko's head. "Let's see... ah, here we are!" Big Chill pulled out the two crawfish. They were covered in mucus and ice crystals. "Hate to let a good snack go to waste."

"Did you say snack?" Miko didn't like where this was going.

Big Chill took the two mud bugs and dropped them into his mouth. He ate them raw. And right after they were in Miko's nose.

Miko fainted and landed on the floor.

"How did it taste?" Arcee was probably going to hate the answer.

"Eh, a bit on the chewy side, but pretty good." Big Chill went back to being Jack.

"Okay, didn't need or want to know that."

At the Witchcraft Museum...

Hex was tearing the whole place apart. He was looking for something.

"The Archamada Book of Spells, where is it?" He asked one of the night guards that he had floating in the air upside down.

"We locked it in the vault." The guard pointed to the armored door. Hex walked to it. He used his powers to toss some display cases out of his way.

"Lata Avidimona Lata." The door was forced open in a manner similar to squeezing a metal can. With the door out of the way, Hex levitated the book to him. "Yes, soon my power will know no limits!" Hex shouted triumphantly. A bolt of yellow lightning went came from the book and went to Hex. He prepared to receive ultimate power, but something went wrong. He looked at his collar and noticed that something was missing. "One charm is missing." He remembered when it went missing. "Of course, the battle with the shape changer."

At the market...

June, Gwen, Jack, Miko, Raf, and Arcee(using her ID mask) were walking down the street past a bunch of vendors who were selling things. Miko was trying to avoid talking to the group after what happened.

"You know Miko, never in my entire life have I ever seen crawfish actually crawl up someone's nostrils." June humorously said. "That is, until today." Everyone in the group was laughing a bit, but Miko wasn't genuinely laughing. Hers was more of an awkward giggle.

"Glad I helped make your day, Mrs Darby."

"Miko, sorry about what happened." Gwen apologized. "Maybe I should get you something to make it up." Gwen went over to a hotdog cart. "One please."

"Help!" A woman shouted with your standard Louisiana accent. "They stole my purse!" A trio of teenagers was running in the direction of the group.

"That's far enough." June said, holding her out like a traffic cop.

"Yeah? Is that so? Who's gonna make us? You granny?"

"Actually, her and her friend spidermonkey." Jack said. He hid behind the hotdog cart.

The teens pulled out some pipes and crowbars and planned on using them. They approached the group threateningly.

"Hey that's a nice necklace you have their babe." On of the hoodlums said. The trio approached them. The runes carved into the charm around Gwen's started to glow. "Do not call me 'babe'!"

Then there was a flash of blue light.

"What was that?" Another of the thugs said.

"Spidermonkey!" The Arachnichimp jumped on top of the umbrella that was on the hotdog stand.

"What da hell is that?"

"The guy who's gonna stop you. Now back off punks and nobody has to get hurt." Spidermonkey was going to jump off the umbrella, but the umbrella broke, causing him to fall off it, knocking a juggler off the unicycle he was on. The unicycle went flying at one of the thugs, knocking him over. The pins that were being juggled hit the leader on the head, causing him to stumble over to Arcee, who despite using her ID mask to both look like a human and be the same size as one, still possessed the strength she did as an Autobot and restrained him. The third guy was going to attack Miko and Raf. Gwen went to stop him. She accidently stepped on a bottle of mustard that was knocked over, causing mustard to go into the eyes of the hotdog vendor. In his blinded state, he accidently sent the cart at the third thug, ramming into him and eventually hitting the side of a building. That caused a flower pot to fall on the head of the guy who was hit by the flying unicycle, knocking him out cold.

"Hmm. Cool." Gwen noticed that the charm was glowing.

"This young lady's a hero officer!" The old lady whose purse was stolen from said.

"Who me? Just lucky I guess." Gwen noticed a stand that sold masks. She got a devious smile on her face when she thought of something.

The next morning...

Gwen had asked if she could stay for the night in the Rust Bucket. However, she wasn't there. June's snoring must've woken her up. Raf and Miko were still asleep, as was Arcee. Jack however was wide awake and was trying to block out the noise.

"Ahg! Guess I can't sleep in anymore." Jack said quietly. He got out of his bed and went outside to find Gwen shooting impossible shots. She stood with her back facing the hoop. She tossed the ball, purposely missing. It bounced slightly off the top of another person's RV, causing the radio antenna to fling it like a catapult. It landed on the powerline supports(can't remember for the life of me what they're called). It bounced up to the center pole and rolled down the powerline, falling into the net.

"Nothing but net, again!" Gwen triumphantly said.

"Okay, we are definitely not playing horse." Jack said as he walked over to Gwen with the basketball in hand. "How'd ya do that?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but it's like everytime this charm glows, everything just goes my way."

"Nothing like a good night's sleep." June and the others exited the RV. "Who wants breakfast?"

Suddenly, there was a boom at a nearby construction site. A couple of the wires that supported the platform that two construction workers stood on snapped, causing it to fall. They screamed as they held on for dear life.

"Time to get to work." Jack selected the hologram of the Segmentosapien, before he could transform, Gwen interrupted him.

"Yeah both of us." She ran into the Rust Bucket.

"Okay." Jack transformed. "Bloxx!" Bloxx headed towards the building and started climbing up the side once he got there.

"Over here!" A worker who was trapped in his truck that was partially crushed by a girder shouted. "Somebody!"

Gwen was wearing a black and purple cat mask that she bought the previous night. She had a black long sleeve shirt and black pants. She wore black boots that had purple soles. Around her neck was the necklace that had the charm on it as well as a purple scarf that was more for looks.

"Gwen?" June looked confused.

"It's Lucky Girl aunt June."

Gwen, or Lucky Girl went to get the man out.

"Stay calm!" She shouted. She jumped on a long plank that was on a couple of sawhorses. That sent two smaller planks of wood flying. They flew into the operator's area of a crane, one breaking breaking the glass, the other ended up hitting a lever, and causing the wrecking ball to drop on the back of the truck, flinging the girder off. The girder hit a button, breaking it and sending a lift up. Bloxx, who had just about reached the two workers who were in danger of falling, was picked up by the lift and was tossed in the air when its emergency brakes kicked in.

"Uh oh!" Luck Girl thought that Jack was going to die, but Bloxx turned his hand into a giant hammer and broke through the lift. The debris from this was sent in the direction of the civilians and Lucky Girl.

"Gwe- Er Lucky Girl!" June shouted. "Move!"

June's niece dodged the falling debris. She accidently landed in a cement truck and pushed the lever that kept it in place, causing the mixer to back up, knocking over a large pipe. The pipe hit a section of scaffolding that Bloxx was holding onto.

"Ah bullshit." Bloxx deadpanned before falling into the cement. "Help! Can't swim in this! It's too sticky!" Bloxx shouted. 'If I get out of this, I'm never using Bloxx in a construction site again.' Despite his strength being depleted, he managed to climb out.

The opening of the pipe was right below where the workers were holding on.

"Slide down the chute!" June shouted

They let go and after falling down, they safely landed on a cushion.

Bloxx wiped the cement off of his body. He saw that Gwen as Lucky Girl was being interviewed by a news crew.

"How did you pull off this amazing rescue?" The reported asked.

"With style of course." Gwen said. "Who's your hero?" She mocked.

"Oh ha ha. Very funny." Bloxx said as he walked over to where the interview was taking place.

"Oh put a plate on it Build-A-Guy." Lucky Girl said.

'Build-A-Guy? What the scrap kinda name is that?'

"You heard it first here. An exclusive on the scene interview with our city's own Lucky Girlm and her sidekick Build-A-Guy."

"It's Bloxx!"

"Sorry, Lucky Girl and her sidekick Blocks."

"Bloxx. B-l-o-x-x. Not B-l-o-c-k-s."

Meanwhile, Hex saw the broadcast and saw that this Lucky Girl had his missing Charm. He also noticed something familiar about the creature she was with. He noticed the Omnitrix dial on Bloxx, but he didn't know what the Omnitrix was.

"That symbol on the creature of brick, it matches the one on the speedster from last night."

Later, in the Rust Bucket...

"I cross referenced the Archamada Book of Spells." Raf said. "Look." He show Gwen the results. "It's apparently part of a set of five called the Charms of Bezel."

"Cool. So Raf, which one is this?" Gwen handed Raf her necklace.

"Apparently luck. There's others; one for fire control, another for levitation, reincarnation." He handed Gwen the charm back.

"Hey, those are the same things that Hex had back at the museum. Wait he lost the luck charm. There's a bit of irony there, I just can't put my finger on it."

"Maybe these Charms of Basel are some of those Iacon relic things."

"Iacon? What's that?" Gwen asked.

"An city on my homeworld of Cybertron." Arcee said. "And they might be. Raf, contact the base."

"Okay." Raf opened a video chat with the Autobots. Ratchet was there. "Hey Ratchet!"

"Hello Rafael. Need any help? Did Jack get sick again and you need name of the cybertronian equivalent of the disease?"

"Actually, Ratchet is it, we need to know if one of the Iacon relics looked like this." Gwen walked over and showed Ratchet the luck charm.

"Who is that?!" Ratchet was frustrated. "Miko, I swear if you don't keep your mouth shut I will stitch it shut!"

"Miko wasn't the reason I found out about Arcee, sunshine." Ratchet glare at the new human that knew about the autobots. "Arcee not being human gave it away. Her mana was different from a human."

"That's good. And about your medallion. Optimus, could you please identify this for, what's your name ma'am?"

"Gwendolyn, Gwendolyn Tennyson."

"Optimus, could you confirm this as being an Iacon relic or not for Ms Gwendolyn Tennyson?"

The sound of loud footsteps was heard. The blue helmet of the Autobot leader along with his silver face was seen.

"Hmm, Gwendolyn, the item you have resembles something that at one time was in the Iacon vaults, but for some unknown reason, it was moved off world before the war started. They were called the Charms of Bezel and were a collection of oddity among the relics."

"How so Optimus?"

"Most of the relics that were in the vaults were able to be used by Cybertronians, with a few present that smaller life forms such as humans could use, but these Charms of Bezel were merely pieces of metal in the hands of a large portion of the Cybertronian populace. Only a fraction of a percent could properly use the charms."

"So these Charms of Bezel were on Cybertron? Why?" Raf asked.

"Alpha Trion, an archivist and my former teacher, had told me that he had these items in his possession to store them for their namesake."

"Okay, thanks for the history lesson, but we need to know if the 'cons are gonna go after Gwen or Hex to get these?"

"Very unlikely. These were never put in the database, and thus the Decepticons have no knowledge of them."

"Thank you Optimus, we'll call you guys if we need any help." Raf said before he ended the chat.

"But we also have a second problem. The spells within the Archamada Book of Spells must be used in conjunction with all five charms in order for them to be at their full power." Gwen said. "Oh well. His loss is my gain."

"I'm afraid more like was." June interjected. "We should either turn that Charm into the museum or the Autobots."

"What? No fair!" Miko and Gwen said in unison.

"Not before I try it." Miko said.

"Not before I use it again." Gwen said. "The world needs someone with the power of lucky girl."

"News flash, Jack's the only one with powers." Miko then thought this over. "Okay so do the 'bots and 'cons. And that Animo guy. Do the circus freaks count? So does that bug guy. And there's Rojo. Okay, a lot of people that have attacked us have powers."

"It'll be good to have a second human who has super powers on our side." Arcee said. "And that's without your charm. You have abilities similar, umm, what were they called again? Hold on, I'll get back to you on that."

"Please can I keep the charm aunt June? Ever since Ben found that weird belt, he's been acting like a complete air head."

"Belt? What belt?" Miko asked.

"It's called I think the Mach changer, or something like that. He's been using it to be a 'superhero' called Masked Rider Mach." She said with air quotes.

"Masked Rider Mach? Hmm, that has a nice ring to it." Jack said. "But why Mach?"

"He claims to move at Mach Speed."

"So where does the Masked Rider part come from?"

"He's been compared to those Kamen Riders."

"Okay. Hey, why haven't we heard of him?" Miko asked.

"He's not as famous as someone like Captain Nemesis." Gwen said. "And thank all the deities in the cosmos for that. He would never shut up if that were the case. He's the reason that I kinda hope that your secret identity gets revealed. Having everyone focus on you would be an improvement."

Suddenly, something came on the radio.

"And in the news of the weird, reports are coming in that the city's famed haunted history mansion has come alive, trapping dozens of visitors inside."

"Mom!"  
"Aunt June!"

"Mrs Darby!"

"On it."

Haunted History Mansion...

The Rust Bucket drove up to building whose exterior was in the style of classical revival. Jack exited the camper and was about to transform, but Gwen, in her lucky girl guise stopped him.

"Back off, I'll handle this!" She ran to the building.

"Gwen! You're gonna need backup!" June, Jack, Arcee, Raf, and Miko ran after her.

When they got in they noticed that things were pretty chaotic. The balconies were swaying back and forth, the floor was making waves, the chandeliers were swinging around unnaturally fast.

Hex waited in a windowsill, hidden by the curtains that matched the colors of his robe.

"I knew you couldn't resist, Lucky Girl." Hex calmly boasted.

The eyes on the bird skull on Hex's staff glowed yellow, causing the balcony to start to creak. The people who were trapped were panicking.

"Everybody stay calm!" Miko shouted. "Luck Girl is in the haunted house!" Gwen ran up the stairs, right before one of Hex's four charms glowed, causing the stairs to fly at the other five. Jack managed to duck to a place where nobody could see him.

"Time to see what this guy does when I'm fit as a fiddle." Jack selected his insecticon human hybrid form and transformed. "Waspinator!" He saw that one of the planks of wood was going to hit June. The sound of shifting gears was heard and a gun that as mostly yellow with black stripes and had a black stinger as a barrel appeared in his hand. He shot the board, shattering it.

Gwen didn't make it up to the balcony before Hex caused the supports the crumble and the stairs to fly in the opposite direction. Gwen was thrown off of the set of stairs that she was on and when her charm glowed, landed on a pillar.

Some of the people were starting to fall off, one of them, a woman who was slightly overweight, but not fat, fell and was caught by Arcee. The balcony flew off, then came to a sudden stop, throwing the people off. Luckily, they were caught by Waspinator, who fluttered down to the floor.

"Waspinator says humans get out. Waspinator, girl who could say 'what could possibly go wrong', and friends of waspinator deal with this." The people ran out. "Waspinator just realized what waspinator said." The support of the balcony hit waspinator, knocking his arms and legs off. "Guyz, help." Miko and Raf helped reattach waspinator's limbs.

The door slammed shut. Gwen's hands were surrounded in yellow lighting. Hex lifted her up in the air and flung her at Waspinator.

"Give me my charm!" Hex demanded.

"Cuz, mind changing Waspinator's form? Just tap the dial."

The charm glowed before Gwen did what her cousin asked. She got one of Jack's heavy hitters.

"Humungousaur!" The vaxasaurian proclaimed.

"Aw yeah! Time for lizard Bulkhead to bring the beatdown! Wrecker style!" Miko started filming this with her cell phone.

Humungousaur was pelted by wooden planks, which had no effect on him. Hex was backing away, a experiencing a rare moment of helplessness. The dinosaur like alien punched Hex, sending him flying back and knocking over a suit of armor. Jack went back to being human.

In Hex's disoriented state, the Gwen, June, and Raf managed to run down a hallway. They turned left at T-junction and came to a room that was oddly well maintained. There was a couch, a fireplace, a rug beneath the couch, several paintings on the walls, a ceiling fan, a couple comfy looking chairs, and a cylinder with a bust on it.

"Which one?" June asked. Gwen leaned on the bust, revealing a button that he pressed to lift up the back of the fireplace, revealing a set of stone stairs that lead away from here.

Miko, Arcee, and Jack were still in the room that Hex, who had recently recovered, had left and was going after Gwen.

"They must have gone this way." Jack said. He, Arcee, and Miko ran down the same hall, but they took a right instead of a left.

In the catacombs, June, Gwen, and Raf were running past things that would normally be creepy, such as rats, a snake slithering through a skull, decaying bodies, and the like, but in Louisiana, we call that what you find in the Bayou.

When they came to a stop to catch their breath, they weren't aware that Hex was on the other side of a wall. The sorcerer said the words for a spell.

"Eterla Morbulus!" His hands were glowing as they had them raised. But saw a stone fall on the ground, one that Gwen had absentmindedly pushed out of place. Before the ceiling collapsed he managed to use his staff to project a force field around himself. He saw the trio and evilly grinned. June, Raf, and Gwen ran as Hex approached them. He fired a bolt of energy from his staff. The luck charm glowed, causing the three to trip and avoid being shot. That made a hole that led to a cemetery.

The three ran out and hid behind some trees. They thought they were safe, but some vines grabbed them and held them upside down. One of the vines grabbed the charm and tossed it around Hex. Hex smiled as he made the vines wrap around their faces, causing things to go dark.

Later...

Gwen, Raf, and June were freed by Jack, who was now Four Arms and Arcee who was no longer using her ID mask and was in her true Autobot form.

"Thanks Jack."

"Don't mention it."

"Where is he?" Arcee asked. June looked to see Hex floating near a cliff. He was reading out of the Archamada book of spells.

"Found him." June said.

"Time to turn this city into an old memory!" Hex's eyes were now glowing yellow.

"Wait, he's gonna make this pre katrina New Orleans?" Miko asked.

"That one was pretty good."

"Rava Eelartas Gallametroy!" He chanted. A hurricane like vortex appeared over the city. Lightning struck and was destroying stuff. The vortex sucked up things that weren't nailed down, people included. "Citaro Macola!" Before the effects of that spell could be seen, Four Arms leaped at him. That caused the vortex to disappear, dropping the people and objects, nor hurting the people, but damaging the stuff.

Arcee jumped down to where Jack was and deployed her blasters. Miko, June, Raf, and the now no longer super lucky Gwen ran down a flight of stairs.

"Stay back!" Four Arms commanded. "Arcee, let's take this guy down."

"Okay." Arcee normally was against harming humans, but if you've seen MECH's debut episode, you'd think differently. She had her blasters trained on Hex.

"You dare challenge me? You and you she-golem companion shall suffer shape changer!"

"What did you call me?" Arcee blasted him, but her energon blasters had no effect on his shield.

"Gargelia Vortium." Red smoke came out of Hex's staff and went into stone statues, bringing them to life.

"Woah didn't see that coming." Arcee said as she and Four Arms were attacked. An imp flew around Four Arm's head, annoying the hell out of him. The imp grabbed onto the Tetramand's face. Jack got it off after some struggling and shattered it.

Arcee was dodging the attacks of one that was of a minotaur, trying to trip it up. Four Arms had a quadrupedal stone demon pounce on him. It wrapped its tail around the four armed, red skinned humanoid neck, and bit his left shoulder. He managed to get that demon off him. He saw that the Minotaur was going to crush Arcee's head. He charged an threw the minotaur off of her.

"Thanks for the save partner." Arcee said as Four Arms helped her up. Before Four Arms could say anything, the Minotaur charged at Four Arms, pushing him into a tomb. Arcee was attacked by the stone demon that bit her partner. It tried the same tactic, but found that it's teeth shatter when they hit the cybersteel armor of the Autobot. Arcee grinned at its suffering. She grabbed the tail of the living statue and slammed it on the ground, shattering it. "Now what would Jack say after beating this thing?" Arcee thought of a one liner. "And that's how you dethrone a rock lord."

Hex was about to recreate the storm, but Gwen threw a rock and hit his foot. Gwen and June were standing on a stone slab while Miko filmed this.

"Ah!" He winced in pain.

"Luck only takes you so far." She said as she got a second rock and tossed it at Hex, hitting him in the head and causing him to fall over. A second imp statue flew at the trio. Arcee grabbed a metal rod that had a large chunk of stone on one end. She held it like a baseball bat.

"Going. Going." June said as the Imp approached Arcee. The blue autobot swung the club that she held hit the Imp, shattering it. "Gone!"

Four Arms had tossed the Minotaur into a stone building that was made to look like a church. One of the quadrupedal imp statues saw this. Four Arms took a stone sword in his hand and removed it.

"En Guard." He said with the sword on his shoulder. The stone beast charged at him. In managed to get behind him and tried to pounce, but Four Arms swung his stone broadsword and destroyed it. But, the sword was no more. The minotaur tried to punch him, but the Tetramand ducked in time, getting out of the way of the stone minotaur. It tried to throw a rock at him, but Four Arms ducked and when the minotaur charged at him, he managed to wrap two of his arms around his neck and by applying pressure, shattered the statue. Four Arms noticed an angel statue near his leg. He picked up that one and tossed it at the wall, killing it.

Gwen found Hex's collar with the charms still on it. Hex realized that he no longer had the charms and right when he tried to get them, he was grabbed by Arcee.

"Time for the magician to disappear." Arcee walked over and dropped him in a stone chamber that would normally hold a casket. June and a now human Jack slid the lid on the chamber, leaving laying next to a skeleton.

"I could fly, shoot out bolts of lightning, bring trees back to life, I'd be unstoppable." Gwen thought about this for a bit. "Or I could just be me." She place the charms on a stone slab and used a shovel to break them, causing blue smoke to leave them and head up to the sky.

"Neat." Raf snapped a picture with his phone.

Hex wa found later and handcuffed by the police.

"Try breaking out of these houdini."

In the Rust Bucket...

"You did the right thing destroying those charms Gwen." June said.

"Thanks." Gwen said. "Hey, could you take me back to the hotel I'm staying at?"

"Sure thing. Which one?"

"The Hampton inn by the museum."

At the hotell Gwen was staying at...

"See you soon Aunt June!" Gwen said as she went back to her hotel room

There was a call from the Autobots coming in on June's phone. She answered and put it on speaker. It was Ratchet.

"Arcee, you're needed back at the base." The medic said.

"Send a bridge."

June hung up the phone as Arcee exited the Rust Bucket, she walked into a alley and removed her ID mask and placed it in her storage compartment. She transformed into vehicle mode and drove off.

"And you Darbys and your friends are needed elsewhere." An unseen man with a slight British accent said.

"Who said that?" Suddenly they found themselves outside of an old military base.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Quite a few thing to point out in this chapter wrap up...
> 
> First, we have the big one: Gwen is related to Jack? Why? Well, I like to take what I think are the best components of other ideas and add my own spin on them. I'm a bit like a Galvanic Mechamorph in that respect. If you don't know, I'm borrowing a concept from the story Prime 10 by LibraryNexus; in Prime 10, Jack is Ben and Julie's son, and Julie changed her name to June Darby after _ _; but in my story June is Max's daughter, making Jack Ben and Gwen's cousin. And I didn't make a mistake. Ben will be in this eventually.
> 
> But if you think it's a bit far fetched, allow me to tell you this, in Omniformer The Beginning, Jack lies to the Autobots about having the Omnitrix, which shouldn't have lasted for as long as it did because if I were there I would see who's never around when the aliens Jack turns into are present. It's a plan Bulk and Skull should've used to find out who the power rangers were. Plus, having Jack being a member of the Tennyson family is a lot better than my original idea, which was to have Sierra be the one with Anodite powers. No, I have a different idea in mind for Sierra, and it involves Vince and a shock collar.
> 
> And I called crawfish by many names, because they're called many things; crawdads, crayfish, mudbugs, and maybe more.
> 
> Next we have Bloxx being weakened by the cement. That's a Lego Movie reference, and a bit of assumption on my part.
> 
> There's the reference to Ben having superpowers in this timeline. He has what Gwen referred to as the Mach changer, which is a reference to the Mach Driver from Kamen Rider Drive. I found out that Ben Tennyson's personality after the Highbreed were defeated, and that of Go Shijima are similar. In this universe, he doesn't go by Ben 10, but rather Masked Rider Mach.


	9. Paradox

Sixty years ago, Los Soledad...

"Sure this thing is gonna work?" A military officer spoke through what acted like a microphone. "Your time machine has cost the US government a pretty penny."

"The chronologer is hardly a time machine in the sense of a vehicle," A man wearing a white lab coat, black pants, a brown undershirt, a black tie, and protective goggles with green lenses said. "but rather a subatomic drill designed to bore a tunnel through the fabric of space time. As for cost, does the alleviation of untold amounts of human suffering throughout history is ample justification general." He said as he walked towards glass window where the general and several other scientists were.

"It'll also give our red buddies oversees a thing or two to think about." The general placed a pair of protective goggles on.

"But to answer your first question. There is only one way to find out." The assistant pulled a lever, causing a blue vortex to form within the ring made out of quartz.

"Are you sure we're safe here doctor?"

"Not in the slightest Hugo." The doctor said. "But the chromomagnetic field we've generated should protect us."

"Doctor, I'm frightened." Hugo said.

"Have a gumball, it'll calm your nerves." He held out a brown paper bag with the aforementioned candy.

Things were starting to get warped into the vortex, as if they were being stretched. The doctor tried to run to a safe distance, but he was dragged in. That same instant, a large humanoid creature appeared.

Sixty years later...

The Rust Bucket was outside of the wall of a military base.

June and Jack exited the camper.

"Where are we?" They saw a green muscle car with black racing stripes. There was someone standing in front of it.

"I don't know, let's ask him." Jack suggested. "Hey you! Where the hell are we?" Jack shouted.

The person touched the hood of his car and his skin and clothes turned green. He ran over to them and forced them against the side of the RV.

"What the? Who are you? How'd you find this place? And how did you get here?"

"Well hello to you too sunshine." Jack said.

"Watch it kid!"

"Please us down and we'll explain."

"Fine." He let go of them. "Now talk."

"I'm June Darby, and this is my son Jack." June said.

"June? That's my Gwen's aunt's name. Are you two?"

"Related to her? Yes." Jack said. "Didn't catch your name, and it it..."

"Kevin, Kevin Levin."

"Well Kevin could you tell us where we are?" June asked.

"Los Soledad, former military research center. Closed in the fifties for some unknown reason." Kevin said. "Pretty sweet huh?"

"I guess so." June said. "But how did we end up here? One minute we're in New Orleans, the next, poof! The literal middle of nowhere."

"That's different, but why I'm here, well, there's been some strange things going on. Flashing lights, strange noises, mysterious creatures."

"Sounds like the makings of a prank." June said.

"Yeah, but they were coming from the inside."

"But how?" These walls must've been here for fifty years at least. How'd they get in?"

"Maybe through that." Raf was standing next to Miko as he pointed at a hole in the wall.

"Who're these two?"

"Miko and Raf, who I told to stay in the Rust Bucket."

"But no fair! Why do you and Jack get to solve a mystery and we don't?"

"Kid, it's too dangerous for you in there. Just do what Mrs Darby says and we won't have a problem." Kevin said. Miko was pouting as she and Raf went back into the Rust Bucket. "But that Raf kid is right, they must've gotten in through that hole. But the thing is, I've driven around this place about a hundred times, and that hole's new." Kevin walked over to his car. "You two coming?" He asked.

"We'll take the Rust Bucket."

"It won't fit." Kevin said. "Get in my car."

"Thanks." June said as she and Jack got in. June was riding shotgun while Jack was in the back.

"Just two rules. Three if you were Ben. One, only I drive my car, and two, don't press any buttons."

"Okay." Jack buckled his seatbelt. Kevin started the engine. They drove through the hole in the wall. "Why does it smell like chili fries back here?" Jack held his nose closed. June was looking around and noticed some of the holes in the buildings and the trench like trails in the ground.

"Ben always sits in the back. And as for the smell, that's what he usually eats. I'm surprised he's not as big as, what's his name. Um, it starts with a b. Come on, I know you two know."

"Bulkhead?"

"Yeah, Bulkhead. Know him through Wheeljack."

"And you know Wheeljack how?"

"I sell him some things, parts for his ship, weapon upgrades, you name it."

"So you're an arms dealer."

"No, well, not all of the time. I sometimes sell normal stuff."

"Define 'normal'."

"ID masks, universal translators, basically anything that comes from space and doesn't cause things to go boom."

"Hey Kevin isn't weird how some of these holes are vaguely person shaped?"

"What?" Kevin stopped the car. The trio got out.

"Maybe something burned through them?"

"Like what?"

"The same thing that burned these weird trails everywhere." Jack saw a couple of skeletons.

"This is a bird." Jack picked up one of the skeletons. "And these are lizard bones. It's like they've been fossilized."

"That's not the only thing." June pointed to a phone booth that was rusted to hell and back three times. "It's like somebody turned the slate into sand just by standing on it."

"He was probably on hold."

"The trail goes to the police station, then to what I think are apartments."

"So just to review. Somebody stood here a million years ago and just walked to those buildings that were built fifty years ago."

"You're not helping. There could be a world ending crisis about to start."

"Um, Kevin, what's that?" June pointed to a human sized being that looked like it was leaving a path behind itself. It was blue and looked like a leaf.

"Don't know, but at least I've found something that made it worth coming out here." He said as he touched the concrete, his skin taking on the color and texture of the material.

Jack transformed. June walked back to the car.

"Chromastone!" The crystalsapien said.

"Nice." Kevin said. The creature avoided hitting them and moved by a building, causing it to crumble. Jack and Kevin chased after it.

It just disappeared.

"Gone." Chromastone reverted back into Jack.

"Okay Kevin, what was it that you did with the stone?" Jack asked.

"I'm an osmosisan. I absorb things and copy their abilities. And I know what the Omnitrix is. Do business with enough aliens and you're bound to hear one or two stories about it."

"Okay, that saved us some time."

"And no, I won't try and buy it off of you. That watch brings more bad luck then saying these words." Kevin wrote the words 'things can't get any worse' on a sheet of paper.

"At least the building that it destroyed wasn't the library." June said after running over to Jack and Kevin.

"You really are related to Gwen. But what good is a book supposed to do?"

"She's saying we have to research, find out what that thing is. All we know so far is that it's looking for something on the base."

At the library...

"These films are pretty corroded, but it looks like this base was built for some kind of experiment called project paradox." June said as she read through the slides.

"Who wouldn't pick the desert outside of Alamo Nevada to do anything that was top secret?"

"Wait? Did you say Alamo? That's where we live."

"And they probably picked here because of the quartz deposits." Jack said.

"Quartz, time? Maybe they were trying to build the world's biggest wristwatch?" Kevin joked. June had a frustrated look on her face.

Jack looked at the picture of the guy from the prologue.

"His name's been censored. Who ever this guy was his paradox theory was the basis of some kind of experimental tunnel through time."

At the sight of the experiment...

They made their way to where the events of this chapter started. There were still objects that were in a perpetual state of being stretched.

June noticed the burn marks in this room.

"Look, that thing's been here too."

"Only one trail, it either came in here and vanished..."

"Or it was born here."

They head what resembled hissing. And then something crashed.

Jack transformed again.

"Swampfire!" He walked to the source of the noise and grabbed a man.

"Swampfire, now that takes me back, or is it forward? It's so hard to tell sometimes Jack." The man said. He was the scientist from the prologue and the pictures. "Have we met?"

"How do you know my name?"

"Have we met yet I suppose the question was?"

Kevin and June walked to where Swampfire and the mysterious man were.

"Hey, it's that dork from the photo, the paradox guy."

"You haven't changed at all, in sixty years."

"Oh considerably more than that Juniper." He pulled a red candy out of a paper bag. "Gumball?"

"No thanks." Swampfire politely decline. "Who are you? What's your name?"

"You just read my file. I was hoping you could tell me. It slipped my mind several hundred years ago."

"Did you just say several hundred years ago?"

"Did you just say - hey!" This strange man was gone when Jack turned his head.

"By the way, you didn't happen to see a space time anomaly around here? It's about yea big." He held his left hand at about the same height as his head. "Incredibly destructive, virtually unstoppable." The three 'normal' people all had looks of shock on their face. "No? I must've been thinking of another moment. Ta ta!" He walked through a door. Kevin ran after him and found that he was gone.

"Where'd he?"

June saw him leaning against a telephone pole outside.

"He's out there!"

"He's obviously connected to that creature." Swampfire said. "We need to talk to him."

"Oh yeah, we'll talk." Kevin ran through the wall, his body still made of stone. "Right after the pounding!" Before Kevin could reach the professor, he walked behind a telephone pole and was gone. Kevin was dumbfounded. He then saw the professor in a door frame waving. He closed the door. Kevin burst down the door and was tearing up the interior of the building looking for him.

"Was I in there?" He appeared in front of Swampfire and June by walking into their field of vision. He ran off.

Swampfire, June, and Kevin ran after him. They charged through on of the apartment buildings. The professor appeared behind them.

"That was public property, you know."

"How does he move so fast?" Swampfire asked.

"You mean, how do I move so quickly." He appeared by another building across the street. "It's called walking." He appeared next to Kevin. "Strolling really." Kevin grabbed the collar of his lab coat.

"That's better."

"Easy on the Jacket, it's twelve hundred years old." Kevin let go of him. "Anyway, thanks."

"Thanks? For what?" Swampfire was puzzled.

"Well, I had a feeling that if we made a loud enough racket, he'd show up." They heard the sound that the time creature made.

"Finally, something we can hit!"

"Oh, I don't really think that's a good idea."

The creature was seen approaching them. June noticed something about the area where it walked.

"Those aren't burn marks, they're age. The creature accelerates time." June reasoned as Kevin ran at the creature and tried to punch it.

"Very good."

"Not so fast ugly!" Kevin's punch went right through the creature. It caused his skin and clothes to go back to normal. His skin was then made wrinkly. June and Swampfire went to help Kevin as the professor ran off in the same direction as the creature. Kevin was laying on the ground.

"Kevin?" Swampfire asked as he turned him to see that Kevin was now balding, his back hair now white. He was missing most of his teeth and had brown spots on his face, but his black shirt, grey longsleeve shirt, and blue jeans were unaffected. Swampfire went back to being Jack. "Just touching that thing made him age what? Sixty, eighty years?" Jack was helping the now old Kevin up. "We need to get him to a hospital."

"Get your hands off of me!" Old Kevin shouted.

"Come on Kevin, we're gonna get you some help." June said.

"What do you mean help? I'm gonna kick that thing's kiester!" He kicked and then the side of his chest was hurting.

"Are you okay?" June asked.

"My back is killing me, my legs ache, and what's up with these shoes? Is it too much to ask for a little support?" Old Kevin complained.

"He's like a real irritable, short tempered, crotchety old man." June said.

"Why are you whispering?"

"In other words, aside from the male pattern baldness, he seems exactly the same." Jack said. "Come on old man."

Later...

Kevin was trying to unlock something green.

"I'll take those." Jack took the keys from Kevin.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Driving."

"Don't even think about it. I don't think you even have a licence."

"My mom taught me, and it's an emergency." Jack said. "You're nearsighted, arthritic, your reflexes are shot, and, you're trying to unlock a cactus."

June facepalmed.

In Kevin's car...

Jack was sitting in the driver's seat. June was once again riding shotgun. Kevin was in the back. Jack put the car in reverse, backing into some trash cans.

"Whoops. Guess I'm a bit out of practice."

"It's not a bumper car!" Old Kevin shouted.

"Back up! Back up! Back up!" June shouted when she saw the time creature burst through the side of a building. Jack did as she said and was driving backwards, swerving randomly. June saw another building get broken through. "Jack, on your right!" Jack looked in the side mirror to see the creature approaching. Jack slammed on the brakes and turned the car around. He drove down an alleyway. Jack was driving as fast as he could to get away, but the creature was right on their trail. They made it to the road, where Jack thought he could lose it, but the creature touched the car, causing the paint to chip, the body to rust, and the windows and headlights to crack.

"No! Not my car!" Old Kevin shouted as his car was ruined.

"Hang on!" Jack said as he drove to what looked like a ram. He floored it, getting the car to the roof of a building.

Jack and June helped Kevin out of the car.

"You are never driving my car again!" Kevin shouted. The doors fell off, as did two of the wheels.

"True."

"Where have you been?" The scientist from earlier asked. "You were supposed to get her six seconds ago. Or is this thing running fast?" He looked at his pocket watch.

"Who are you anyway?" Jack asked. "What are you doing here?"

"What is that creature?" June asked.

"Can you fix my car?" Kevin pleaded.

"There's something different about you." He walked closer to Kevin. "Is it your hair?"

"Yeah, I'm parting it down the middle now, and I also got real old!"

"Don't talk to me about old, I walk in eternity." The professor said.

"Well, you better start running in eternity smart guy!" Kevin threatened.

"Hmm, you might slow us down. I'll have to fix that. We'll back over there." He pointed at a door used to access the roof.

He and and a now young Kevin walked out of it.

"Kevin, you're back to normal." June was dumbfounded.

"Well, my back still hurts and I have an urge to talk about my health care, but other than that I feel fine." Kevin turn to the scientist. "Alright professor, if you wouldn't mind fixing my car."

"And how do you expect me to do that? I'm a time traveler, not a body shop. Regressing a non living car would break all the chronal laws of space time. And in a timeline as fragile as this one," Jack was losing his patience.

"Okay, enough! I want answers, now!" Jack shouted.

"Same old Jack Darby. You're even more like yourself now then you are in the future. Which, for obvious reasons, I can't really tell you about."

"You want me to hurt him?" Kevin asked.

"What you tell us, Mr Paradox?" June questioned.

"Paradox, Professor Paradox. I just love the way that rolls off the tongue. It is a name I use in many universes so it'll do just nicely." Paradox said. "I'll tell you my story in a way you can understand, with a beginning, middle, and end. But I hate re-explaining thing, so hold on." He walked behind the three of them and vanished. They looked behind them to see nothing. They then looked to where Paradox was to see that he was back and had with him Miko and Raf.

"Huh? How did these two get here?" June asked.

"No, why did he bring them here?" Jack asked.

"Now then, since we're all here, let's begin. As I was saying, my story has a beginning, middle, and end. So let's start in the middle."

He opened his pocket watch and they saw a flash back.

"Los soledad was built entirely because of my ingenious theory, for a human. It told of a time tunnel that could be made using the properties I found in quartz crystals, which would allow us access to past and future events."

"Yeah, but for a genius, you sure blew it." Miko said.

"You don't know the half of it. A tiny miscalculation on my part, destabilized the experiment and ripped a hole in the fabric of reality. I was hurled into the event horizon. I must've spent one hundred thousand years there. I didn't age, or sleep, or need to eat, just exist."

"Sound pretty boring." Kevin said.

"At first I went mad of course. But after a few millennia I got bored with that too and went sane, very sane. I began to learn. I now have total understanding of the space time continuum." He closed his pocket watch. "Allowing me to travel any where and any when I want, within reason. Now, any questions?"

"Okay, where's your time machine?" Miko asked.

"He doesn't have a time machine, he has a map, in his head!" Jack reasoned.

"Exactly, I know where all the shortcuts are."

"How can you look the same now as you did even after more than a hundred thousand years?"

"I found out that my experiment happens in an infinite amount of timeline, not all of them, just infinite. It fused all of those versions of me into one being, giving me their collective life span. Infinite versions means infinite seconds I could live compiled into one hourglass. That allows me to travel to different timelines, since all of the time lines where I did the experiment are missing their version of me."

"And what have you been doing with your eternal life?" June asked.

"I've spent at least a dozen dozen lifetimes criss crossing the timestream, making it a better place."

"And how does that pay?" Kevin asked.

"At the moment not even in job satisfaction."

The five of them and paradox found themselves room with chalk boards around the walls.

"You see, I recently discovered that some kind of extra dimensional creature is going to wreak havoc across the universe, as it has done in many others."

"So, from the way you talk, you seem to take on monsters like this all the time, what makes this one seem so bad?"

"Because, unlike the thousands of exterminators, warmongers, monsters, and other foes I have face over the millennia, this extradimensional came into reality the exact moment my experiment went awry."

"Oh, so just to be clear, it's your fault." Kevin said.

"This creature hasn't been lurking around for sixty years, we would've heard about it." Raf said.

"Time is like a river, it moves, flows, and bends." Paradox drew a crude drawing of a river on one of the black board. "Sixty years ago, I set off a depth charge, the creature I released was blasted sixty years though time. Doing this to your future." He drew a wave pattern over the river.

"But all it's doing is messing up an old army base, and that's a problem how?" Miko asked.

"That's a better question for the man on the moon." Paradox replied.

"What? Who's 'the man on the moon'?" Jack asked.

"I am!" Paradox's voice now echoed. They were on the moon.

"We're on the moon! This is so cool!" Miko shouted in glee.

"No, we're on the moon in you distant future."

"What?! Then how come we're not suffocating?" Kevin asked.

"Good question, but not remotely the point though." Paradox said. "Imagine what the earth would look like in, oh, let's say, two hundred years, with that time monster wandering all over it, aging everything that crossed its path to either dust or obscurity. For those of you with either no imagination or are curious, the earth is up there." They looked to see that the earth was no longer blue and green. It was now greenish brown and muddy red.

"You brought us to the worst possible version of the future." Jack couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"No, should I fail to stop that creature, this is your best possible future. Not a pretty sight, isn't it."

"And what's the worst?" Miko asked.

"Have any of you ever heard of the Chaos Bringer?"

"Yeah, Unicron, right?" Jack said.

"That's partially correct, in the worst possible future, the time monster turns even the dust into dust eventually, bringing it to a point where a solar wind blows off all of what remained of this planet's crust, revealing the monster beneath." Paradox said. "And with direct access to the proper energy, Unicron begins a warpath that will eventually destroy this universe, and soon, more shall fall." He noticed someone who looked exactly like he did. "What're you doing here?"

"I'm allowing myself to feel the full impact of my failure."

"Okay, who's he?" Miko asked.

"He's a parallel Paradox."

"Young Jack has an innate sense of transtemporal metaphysics, which will serve him well in his future, or should I say past? It is most likely due to his connection to a multiversal singularity."

"But what pray tell should I do?" The main Paradox asked.

"Well, not what I did." The second Paradox replied. "But whatever you do, do it quickly, time is running out."

They were back on the roof of the building a Los Soledad.

"Hold on Paradox, could you please explain what's going on?" June asked. "The more universes and this time stream."

"One would usually wait until after the crisis at hand to explain a situation such as this, but seeing as this is not a usual universe, and that I'm not a usual person." Everything around them stopped. "Where shall we begin?"

"Paradox," Miko said, getting the attention of the time traveler. "You said our Universe was wrong."

"Your universe isn't wrong dear child." He said. "Your universe shouldn't be this way. It's just too strange."

"Professor Paradox, are you saying that our timeline shouldn't exist?" Raf asked.

"Nonsense Rafael! All timelines should exist and do exist, it's just that yours is rather strange. It exists at a sorta crossroads. How it works is that your time stream split off from the main timeline that I shall refer to as the 'Ben 10' timeline at around the time Cybertron was forming. Your universe, like all others, started out as a bee if you would, passing by all different realities, taking the characteristics of them, but still having the basics of the parent Ben 10 timeline. For example, Jack, your form that you have dubbed Waspinator is a combination of two different versions of the same person. But why it is Jack who has the Omnitrix, only time will tell."

"But what other things are 'wrong'?" Jack asked.

"For starters, we have your family besides your mother. Tell me, do you know anyone from your father's side?"

"No, my mom doesn't socialize with them that much."

"Now what about you mother's family?"

"Oh, that's easy! There's my mom's two brothers, Frank and Carl, Aunt Sandra, Aunt Natalie, my cousins Gwen, Ben, and Ken, my mom's aunt Vera, and my Grandpa Max."

"Yes, you know them better because your mom was closer to her family in this timeline."

"Timeline? What do you mean by timeline?"

"Picture the multiverse as tree. For the sake of this making the tiniest bit of sense, let's take a look at Jack's timestream shall we?" A holographic tree appeared. "The trunk is the main timeline, and the branches represent changes that have caused deviations from the main cannon, changes in a person's life to put it simply. They can happen anywhere in the timeline, near the beginning; such as you being born a cybertronian named Ultimus, during your childhood; a timeline exists where you found the Omnitrix at the age of ten, around right now; such as a universe where you use a belt to fight off evil, or even before you were born, changes in the structure of the universe could've resulted in a timeline where the moral axis of the Autobots and Decepticons are reversed, with Primus being the embodiment of Chaos, and Unicron the guardian of order. Timestreams are unimaginably big, with so many different variations."

"And what about the current crisis?" June asked.

"Oh yes, Miko, Rafael, this is too dangerous for you two. You must get back to the camper, where you will wait for Jack and June."

"Okay." Miko said. Paradox walked through a door with Miko and Raf following him. He reappeared behind them.

"Sorry I'm late. I had to cause a stasis pod to activate. Now, let's get back to the current matters." Paradox unfroze time.

"Okay, here's an easy fix, why don't you go back and stop your time experiment from happening?"

"It is just like a composite being to think outside of temporal conventions."

"I'm not a, whatever you called me." June was unsure whether or not she should get offended.

"There are multiple reasons why I can't interfere with the experiment."

"What reasons?" Kevin asked.

"For starters, I can't cross into my own timestream." Paradox said. "And there's the fact that this creature's creation unsticks me in time; and that must happen because, in all modesty..." Paradox knew Jack would figure the answer out.

"You've saved the world dozens of times." Jack reasoned.

"Hundreds actually, in fact, on one occasion, in fact, on one occasion, you and I work together to save the u- whoops, almost told too much." Paradox looked at his watch. "It should be here any..." They heard the sound of it approaching. "You could set your watch by it." The creature destroyed a building as it approached them. Jack got ready to transform.

"Big Chill!" The Necrofriggian flew at the time monster and tried to stow it down by breathing his icy cold breath on it. As it approach the others Paradox took some gumballs and threw them at the approaching time anomaly, causing it to stop in its tracks. "They hit it?" Big Chill asked after he landed. "Doesn't everything age into oblivion as soon as they touch it?"

"Gumballs last a really long time. Look under your desk at school. Now get back!" The creature eventually got past the gumballs and was going to it June. Big Chill was about to shield his mom, but Paradox jumped in front of it and held it back.

"Let go!" June shouted. "He'll age you into dust!"

"I exist outside of time! Though I can still feel the eons passing."

Big Chill reverted into a human. Jack had an idea.

"Paradox, take us back to the accident, now!"

"But I told you!"

"Just do it!"

In a flash of blue light, they were at the base before it was shut down.

"Mom, Kevin we have to get to the lab!" Jack transformed again. "XLR8!" He picked up June and Kevin. "Paradox, keep it occupied."

"I'm a time traveling hero, I don't keep things occupied."

XLR8 and his passengers ran off.

They came to where the prologue took place.

A military officer spoke through what acted like a microphone. "Your time machine has cost the US government a pretty penny." June, Kevin, and Jack snuck in unnoticed.

"The chronologer is hardly a time machine in the sense of a vehicle," A man wearing a white lab coat, black pants, a brown undershirt, a black tie, and protective goggles with green lenses said. "but rather a subatomic drill designed to bore a tunnel through the fabric of space time. As for cost, does the alleviation of untold amounts of human suffering throughout history is ample justification general." He said as he walked towards glass window where the general and several other scientists were. The time travelers were hiding underneath a desk.

"Why would it use a phone?" Jack asked.

"What?" June sought clarification.

"The creature. It tried to use the pay phone, then it went to the police, then the dorms. It isn't acting like some unfathomable transdimensional creature, it did everything a normal person would do."

"More specifically, it did what a normal person would do if they found themselves in an abandoned military base."

The experiment started. All was going well until Hugo stumbled into a control panel and broke it.

"Look there, the assistant." Jack said. The man now know as Paradox was sucked in and Hugo was going to be next. Jack tried to reach out to grab him.

"Jack! You'll be sucked in with him!" June shouted.

"Well then, I need to put on a little weight." Jack transformed into... "Humungousaur!" Hugo was holding on for dear life. He lost his grip and was going to be sucked up. Humungousaur grabbed his lab coat. He got a better grip on him and jumped back. Kevin tossed something at the quartz ring, causing it to break and collapse in on itself.

Paradox meanwhile found that he was about to fail, but right before he hit the wall, he found that Hugo was in place of the creature.

"Hugo! Of course! If it were a snake it would've bit me!"

Kevin, June, and Jack walked out of the building. Jack had a look of pure glee on his face.

"Oh don't look so smug, I would've figured it out eventually." Paradox said.

"You had a hundred thousand years!" Jack said before he and the other three time travelers disappeared.

Sixty years later, in front of the library...

"Well, I have to admit it, I'm impressed. All those centuries trapped in the event horizon, and it never occurred to me that the accident wasn't my fault. You're much smarter now than when I meet you later."

"Thanks, I guess?"

"What happened to him? Your assistant?"

"I lived my life." Hugo said. He had arrived through some unknown means. He was wearing a tan green polo shirt and brown pants. His hair was now white and he used a cane.

"Hugo!" Paradox went over to see his old friend. "How are you?"

"Well, you look the same." Hugo said as the two shook hands. "And I haven't seen you in sixty years."

"Well, I haven't seen you in a hundred thousand years. But you don't look that bad. So how was your life?"

"Good, it was a good life. But I'm sorry about the experiment. I ruined everything. I never got to time travel."

"Would you still like to?" Paradox offered.

"Yes, I'm not afraid any more." Hugo said.

"Glad to hear it." Paradox opened his pocket watch. "How's about I give you a behind the scenes look at eternity?"

A blue portal appeared and Paradox and Hugo walked through it.

"At least he's got company now." June said with a smile on her face.

"Oh and thanks for stranding me out here in the middle of nowhere!" Kevin shouted angrily.

"Hey, don't worry Kevin, we'll give you a ride to Alamo. They walked off. When they turned a corner they saw Kevin's car, brand new.

"Aw yeah! Stoked!" Kevin ran over to inspect the car.

"It looks new." June said.

"It doesn't just look new, it is new. It'd factory new from thirty five years ago. Paradox, I take back everything I was about to say about you!"

Jack saw that there was a note on the windshield. He read it. "Kevin, try to keep in mind that if this car comes into contact with anything else from 1976, it'll explode like antimatter. Enjoy!"

"He's kidding right?" Kevin drove to the hole in the wall. "That's some kind of time traveler joke. Right?"

June and Jack exited the car and went back to the Rust Bucket.

Jack got a text message from Raf. It said: Jack, we need to get to the base now.

"Mom, the 'bots need us at base." Jack said.

"Okay. Let's go."

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. And there's Paradox's introduction. And that's why a massive change was made to the timeline.
> 
> I added Kevin in too because I like the old man Kevin parts from this episode.


	10. The Living Starship

Unknown location, Nemesis...

The Decepticon warship was in a grounded stare due to the actions of the autobot Bulkhead.

"Dreadwing, damage report." Megatron, leader of the Decepticons said.

"We have suffered critical damage to all major systems, lord Megatron." Dreadwing, the blue and yellow Decepticon SIC responded, stating what should've been obvious. "It will be some time before we can get the ship airborne."

"Soundwave..." The silent Decepticon communications officer played a video clip of Bulkhead wrecking the power core.

"So it was an autobot who crippled my vessel? They will move quickly to exploit any perceived weakness."

"Surely they're not foolish enough not to launch a direct assault my liege?"

"Optimus has grown decidedly more ruthless sense our last encounter." Megatron thought up of a plan. "And, if Airachnid's report is to be believed, it seems their pets are learning to fight back."

Nemesis engine room...

"Lord Megatron, as your physician, I strongly advice against this." Knockout voiced his concern "Dark Energon's regenerative properties are impressive, but the side effects - there is no telling how it might impact the ship."

"Dark energon courses through my veins. Infusing the warship will enable me to manipulate the craft as if we are one." Megatron's eyes started to glow purple. "And together we shall crush Optimus Prime.

Autobot Outpost Omega-1...

Bulkhead was telling how he took down the Nemesis.

"And when the insecticons suddenly backed odd, I got inspired by my proximity to the power core and did what I do best." Bulkhead slammed his fist together.

"You trashed Megatron's ride like Four Arms and Arcee did to Hex's plans!"

"Oh yeah! I remember Arcee told us about that. Didn't she make a one liner?"

"Yeah, she said 'And this is how you dethrone a rock lord'." Raf said.

"What ever that one liner was, we focus on taking out the 'cons and we should hit 'em right now while they're vulnerable."

"Megatron's warship may be grounded, but let's not forget that we remain vastly outnumbered, especially since he has added the Insecticon hive to his ranks." Ratchet stated.

"Then maybe it's time for me to call in an air strike."

"Or for us to consider more extreme measures, Agent Fowler."

"Like what? Sending Jack in as Humungousaur to wreck up the place?"

"Even more extreme than that." Optimus stated. "Ratchet, come with me."

Optimus and Ratchet went to the hall where they stored the relics they collected. One of the doors opened to reveal the relic within. It was the first one the Autobots had claimed.

"The spark extractor?" Ratchet was showing concern. "Optimus, are you certain that you want to travel down this path?" Ratchet entered the chamber with Optimus behind him.

"While I am deeply reluctant to deploy a weapon of this caliber, especially one forged by decepticon hands, this may be our only chance to end the war once and for all."

Back in the Nemesis fuel room...

The three fingered robotic arm that deposited energon cubes into the engine grabbed a cube of the purple Dark energon instead of the regular blue stuff. It deposited it into the loader. Megatron walked up and was about to throw the switch that would add the blood of unicron to the ship's power supply, causing all of the blue lights and tubing all over the ship to turn purple. The monitors suddenly had cybertronian runes on them. Deep within the ship, a spark was re ignited.

"I can feel it!"

Back at Autobot outpost Omega-1...

"Optimus, I'm detecting a massive energy spike at the decepticon crash site." Ratchet stated after he saw an energy signal that he was all too familiar with. "It appears to be dark energon."

Ratchet typed in the coordinates and activated the ground bridge.

"Autobots, transform and roll out." Optimus said. Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead transformed into their vehicle modes and drove through the Vortex.

"Hold on, Prime." Fowler got Optimus's attention. "If you are going to deploy some kind of super weapon in the final showdown in the 'cons, it's my job as a representative of planet Earth to bear witness."

"And you might need someone fast. Bumblebee might be fast, but I doubt he can dodge all the firepower from the entire decepticon army."

"What are you saying Jack?" Optimus asked.

"I'm saying," Jack transformed into "XLR8! Is faster than Bumblebee."

"Very well, you two may join us."

At the crash site...

The Autobot exited the ground bridge. Fowler got out of Optimus's vehicle mode before he transformed along with the others. Jack was still XLR8.

"Sweet lady liberty!" Fowler said when he saw something bad.

The Nemesis was airborne again.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me!" XLR8 yelled. "Okay, who said the words you should never say?"

"What words?" Optimus asked.

"Things can't possibly get worse."

Soundwave had the Autobots, XLR8, and Fowler on his visor via a live feed.

"Optimus, you never disappoint."

The Nemesis deployed it's cannons.

"Bumblebee, now, Jack, stand by to provide support."

"Got it boss bot, but I could provide more support as" XLR8 tapped the dial on his chest. "Diamondhead!"

Bumblebee transformed into his Urbana 500 alt mode and drove towards the nemesis.

"Arcee, Bulkhead, Jack, draw their fire!" The other three autobots and the petrosapien ran at the Nemesis. Fowler watched through a pair of binoculars. "Once you launch the spark extractor, be sure you clear its radius before it can activate."

Bumblebee transformed and ran toward the ship. A satellite dish like thing came out of a hatch and fired a purple beam at Bumblebee right as he jumped, causing him to lose his momentum and fall to the ground dropping the spark extractor. He was frozen.

"Bumblebee!" Optimus shouted.

"Mine!" Arcee grabbed the spark extractor and tried to get it to the destination. She was frozen too.

"No!" Diamondhead shouted. He tapped the dial again. "Waspinator!"

Knockout was impressed with what the ship had.

"I didn't realize this ship was equipped with a stasis beam."

"Neither was I." Megatron said.

Bulkhead ran over and pick up the spark extractor. He couldn't react fast enough and was blasted by the stasis beam.

Optimus avoided being shot by the stasis beam and managed to take the spark extractor out of Bulkhead's hand. He jumped and was about to throw it, but he too was shot by the beam. Waspinator took it out of Optimus' hand as he fell and tried to get it their, but he was also frozen. Waspinator however due to his biology not being completely, managed to tap the dial one again. "Big Chill!"

Fowler looked at what happened to Team Prime. The shadow of the Nemesis was overhead.

"So much for christmas in Fiji." Fowler said as the guns all pointed at him. But then the guns were retracted. "Huh?"

"The Spark Extractor! Guide us closer so that I may collect what belongs to me and destroy the Autobots."

"Um too late for that, Lord Megatron. Look." Knockout drew Megatron's attention to the Necrofriggian that picked up the Spark Extractor.

"Where did that thing come from?" Dreadwing asked.

"It is the one of the Autobots' pets. More specifically, the one who restored the memories of Optimus."

"Shall I terminated him?" Dreadwing asked. "We could use that device on his wrist as a bargaining chip."

"Let those who want the item on his wrist do that. I have made certain arrangements with someone in regards to that particular human."

A set of coordinates were decoded. The ship flew away towards the location, New York City.

"What?! Where are you going?!" Megatron demanded answers. "I said closer to the spark extractor!"

"Lord Megatron," A Vehicon spoke. "the ship seems to be navigating itself."

"Override!" The Vehicon did as it was ordered.

Megatron was losing his patience.

"The systems are bypassing manual control- ohhhhhhhhh!" THe soldier was disabled with a jolt of electricity.

"It appears that the ship now possesses a will of its own." Knockout stated something that fans of the Cybertron game series were aware of.

"Impossible! Trace the problem to its source and fix it!"

"Do not tamper with my systems!" A booming voice demanded. "This will be your only warning!" The decepticons were looking for the source of the voice.

"Warning?!"

"My mission assumes priority. Any cybertronian who interferes will be neutralized."

"My own vessel dares to address me in threatening tone?!"

A beeping was heard. Soundwave pointed to the set of decoded information.

Knockout went to inspect the ship's work.

"It also seems to be doing a better job of decoding the Project Iacon database than we were. It's already deciphered a new set of coordinates." Soundwave's visor showed the destination.

"And judging by our current coarse, that is precisely where the spih is headed." Dreadwing stated.

"As I desire. You see, this warship is nothing more than an extension of my very will."

"Your will is nothing! The Iacon artifact will belong to me!"

"I am lord Megatron! I command you to cease operations."

"You are no longer in command." The vessel sent a signal that caused Megatron great pain. "For I am Trypticon. The station where you discovered the substance that restored my spark."

After the pain subsided, Megatron issued an order. "Regain control of this vessel by any means necessary."

Soundwave attached his two tendrils to a terminal, but a bolt of energy arched up it, placing the spymaster in stasis.

"All hands, cut power to the mainframe and disconnect data relays now!"

Dreadwing and a squad of vehicons ran down a hall, but an array made of laser beams that were in a parallelogram pattern moved down the hall and placed them in stasis.

A squad of insecticons met the same fate, as did two workers who in all honesty were just repairing structural damage.

Back at Autobot outpost Omega-1...

The autobots had been moved back to the base where they were still immobile and positioned like sculptures.

Ratchet looked over the data on a monitor.

"They're alive, but I've never encountered this form of stasis lock."

"The 'cons are crossing the Atlantic, making a beeline for North America."

"Wait, we can track them?"

"Why aren't they cloaked as usual?" Raf asked.

"None of this makes a lick of sense." Fowler said. "The con's had us in their crosshairs, but the 'cons just took off."

"They even bailed on that spark extractor thingy." Miko stated.

"Well, if the ship isn't cloaked, maybe the communications relay is opened, and-" Jack was interrupted by Ratchet.

"Yep, yep. Are you suggesting that we just call megatron and ask him what's happening up there?!"

The four humans tacitly said 'why not?'.

Back on the Nemesis...

Knockout went to the room where, in events prior to this story were where Orion Pax decoded a few entries from the iacon database.

"Lord Megatron, the computer has decrypted a second set of coordinates." Knockout said. "Perhaps we should permit it to continue."

Knockout was shot by a miniature version of the cannon that disabled the Autobots, but despite its smaller size, the effect was the same.

"I do not require permission." Trypticon said.

Back with the Autobots...

"Autobot outpost Omega One to Decepticon warship. Megatron, please respond."

Unbeknownst to Ratchet, Megatron was sprinting towards the Nemesis' engine room.

"This mutiny ends now." Megatron boasted. He was about to remove the dark Energon cube, but was zapped by the stasis ray before he could finish the motion.

"Megatron." After several seconds of uncomfortable silence, they got a response.

"Megatron has been relieved of his command." Trypticon informed the autobots and humans.

"Who is this?" Ratchet asked

"Who is this?!" Trypticon responded.

"Have you taken control of the Decepticon vessel?"

"I am the vessel." Trypticon said. "Any Cybertronian who interferes with my mission will be neutralized." They were shown images, or maybe video footage of the frozen Decepticons.

"What mission?" Ratchet questioned.

"Priority one decrypt Iacon database and recover Decepticon technology." Trypticon stated

"For what purpose?"

"It hung up? Rude."

"Rude?! There's a giant spaceship flying around collecting Decepticon weapons of mass destruction!" Fowler stated the obvious.

"Actually, a giant spaceship filled with neutralized Decepticons." Jack said.

"Point?"

"This could be our only chance to slip aboard and download the Iacon database.

"So Optimus can decode it."

"I was gonna say Optimus or Grey Matter."

"Ingenious. Both parts of your plan. Optimus' knowledge of the code structure used by the archivist combined with the superior processing power of a Galvin brain. I will infiltrate the Decepticon warship."

"Not ingenious. You saw what it did to the Decepticons and Waspinator."

"And probably Megatron, too." Raf reasoned.

"And team Prime."

"But that tub had me dead to rights, and I'm still breathing.

"The ship may be blind to non Cybertronian life forms. When I turned into Big Chill it just ignored me. And based on Big Chill abilities, wouldn't he be a creature you guys would avoid?"

"Actually, Necrofriggians are invisible to Cybertronian sensors. Their bodies are so cold that thermal scanners won't pick up them, but optical sensors will." Raf said.

"Very well, Agent Fowler. But at the first sign of trouble, I am bridging you right back here." Ratchet said. "Now, in order to download the database, you will need a compatible transfer drive."

"A what?" Fowler was handed a Cybertronian sized flash drive that was the same shape as the key to vector sigma, but was thicker and bigger.

"He'll also need tech support." Raf said

"And backup." Miko spoke for herself and Jack.

On the Nemesis...

Jack, Fowler, Raf, and Miko exited the ground bridge.

"Fowler to base. We're in."

"Good. Their data core should be accessible from any console." Ratchet said over the Omnitrix comm link.

Raf gulped, but it sounded like he was going to barf out of nervousness. "H-here's one." Raf saw Knockout.

Miko banged on the shin of the frozen Decepticon. "Doc Knock is knocked out."

"Look." Raf pointed at the data the ship had decoded. The ship's decoded two sets of Iacon coordinates." A third set was revealed. "Three! Let's rip and run." Fowler climbed up Knockout. He helped Raf up as well. "There's the port." Fowler inserted the thumb drive and the download started.

Jack looked at a smaller screen and saw the warship's destination. "Um, why is the warship heading for Manhattan?"

"Because that is where first set of coordinates are located." Raf said.

Nobody questioned how Raf could read the Cybertronian runes.

"What would a relic from Cybertron be doing in the Big Apple?"

"The Iacon relics landed on Earth eons ago, Agent Fowler, long before the city was built atop it."

"Which means if the ship wants this one it may have to move some buildings out of the way." Jack said. "Why do I feel like I'm doing the opposite of what I already did?"

"What?"

"Guy who can control bugs. He didn't want his house destroyed so he kidnapped a member of the city council." Miko said.

"We can share war stories later. Our mission just got complicated." Fowler said. "How do we deter this ship? I've seen Humungousaur in action, he may be tough but he's nowhere near big enough to take on the ship. So, you got any sciency ways of doing the job?"

"I would advise disabling the navigation module." Ratchet said. "Call up the main navigation menu."

"There." Raf pointed at the proper button.

"Step aside, son." Fowler went to push it. When he touched it, he was zapped and lost consciousness and fell on the floor as a result.

"Agent Fowler!" Jack and the kids ran to check on fowler." Jack tripped and landed on the same panel. However, only his left hand touched the panel. A spark of electricity attempted to do to Jack what it did to fowler, but the Omnitrix, acting as a symbiote, absorbed the energy that would normally critically wound or even kill a human. But the Omnitrix got something out of this.

"Arburian Pelarota, Battasapien, Aerophibian, and Nemuina DNA unlocked." The Omnitrix said, the light of its dial shining through Jack's jacket.

"System access detected. Interference will not be tolerated." Trypticon boomed.

"There." Raf pointed at a security camera that was looking for them.

"Reveal yourself." It was looking directly at the kids, but couldn't detect them.

"It doesn't see us." Miko cheered.

"Yet." Ratchet deadpanned. "The ship must not be scanning for carbon-based life-forms. But once it widens its search parameters..."

"We're toast."

"I'm bridging you back."

"No." Jack wouldn't let something like this happen. "There are millions of lives at stake in New York, and we three are currently the only ones who can do anything about it."

"You're out of your element, Jack. These readings, the ship's rapid recovery all point to the fact that Megatron employed Dark Energon to repair it." Ratchet worked to reason with Jack.

"Hold on. If you're saying the ship is fueled by dark Energon, we can dump it, right?"

"Hmm. You'll need to reserve the warship's Energon infuser. Follow the main overhead conduits. They'll lead you to the power core."

They ran down halls of disabled Decepticons. They eventually came to the room with the power core. When they saw what was in that room, they all flinched back in fear.

"Megatron had the same idea."

"Then we're on the right track." Raf said.

"The Energon injection valve can only be operated manually."

"Manually?!" They were all shocked.

"Give me a boost." Jack started climbing up Megatron's body. He came to the shoulders and walked down his arm to the lever that he held on to. Jack tried to push, normally, he would transform but he didn't want to run the risk of alerting the ship.

Trypticon looked through one of the cameras and detected Miko and Raf.

"I am infested with alien life-forms!"

"Uh-Oh." Raf panicked.

"We just got made."

It was about to strike them with the manipulator arm, but Miko and Raf managed to get out of the way. Jack took this time to transform.

"Big Chill!" XLR8 announced. "Or XLR8. He's good too."

Miko and Raf were hitting in the spaces between stacks of Energon cubes.

"All parasites will be eradicated!"

"Hey! Over here!" XLR8 shouted.

"Jack, no!" Raf shouted.

"Run for it!"

"Good idea Miko." The claw was moving to try to crush XLR8, the kineceleran got out of the way in millisecond. "You're too slow!" XLR8 stood still. He waited for the claw to lunge at him. He slid out of the way, causing the claw arm to knock over Megatron, causing him to pull the lever. The purple light on the ship went back to being blue.

"Critical power drain. I am...in...command... Prepare to be...neutralized." Trypticon was no more, again, as the dark Energon cube exited the infuser.

"Megatron became limp as he came out of stasis lock.

"Run." XLR8 said. He picked up Miko and Raf and ran off, but he was reverts back to being Jack a moment later, forcing them to have to run on foot.

Back at the base, the other autobots were coming out of stasis lock.

"Thank the Allspark."

"Ratchet! Fire up the ground bridge!" Jack shouted over the Omnitrix's comm link.

They ran to recover Fowler. Miko helped him up. "On your feet, soldier."

"And beavers and ducks and walnuts and grandma?" Miko dropped him when he failed to make any sense.

Jack saw that only four sets of coordinates had been copied.

"That's all that's been downloaded?!"

"The Iacon file must be huge!" Raf said.

"Sa-weet! Come on! Here's our ride!" Miko and Raf carried fowler out of their.

"Jack?!" Raf noticed that Jack wasn't leaving with them.

"Get Fowler out of here." The other three walked through the ground bridge. "Some is better than nothing." Jack climbed up Knockout, who was confidently still in stasis. "I'm not leaving without that drive." Jack noticed that the Omnitrix had recharged. He transformed again. "Spidermonkey!"

Spidermonkey climbed up Knockout and tried to pull the drive out. However, Knockout then woke up and mumbled, which got the arachnichimp's attention.

"Say 'ahh'." Knockout deployed his drill.

Spidermonkey tapped the Omnitrix dial again. "Diamondhead!"

When knockout attacked the Petrosapien, his drill was destroyed.

Ratchet was standing behind Knockout."I'm here to offer a second the Decepticon medic turned around, he noticed that his drill and the condition it was in. "Or maybe a third." He punched Knockout, making him crash into the console.

That distraction gave Jack enough time to pull the drive out. He jumped down and ran through the ground bridge with Ratchet behind him.

Knockout recovered right as the ground bridge closed. "Lord Megatron, I-"

"You let them escape," he saw that there were now four sets of coordinates decoded. "with vital intelligence."

Autobot outpost omega-1...

"The download of the Iacon database may have been incomplete, but we now possess four sets of coordinates decoded by the ship." Ratchet stated.

"Then we must act quickly, for Megatron possesses the same four sets. And he will not hesitate to obtain the potential doomsday devices which lie at the site of each." Optimus said.

To be continued...

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Off screen, we had Dreadwing's arrival, Wheeljack's return, Breakdown's Death, Airachnid imprisonment, and MECH finding Breakdown's corpse.


	11. Tunneling Under

Autobot outpost omega-1...

The autobots were planning on what to do about the coordinates their human allies had gotten from the Nemesis.

"If we are to have any hope of recovering the Iacon relics before the Decepticons do, we must divide our resources."

"But, Optimus, when it comes to numbers, we are already at a grave disadvantage." Ratchet stated the obvious.

"Under the circumstances, swiftness of action is paramount. This is one race that we absolutely cannot afford to lose."

Nemesis...

The nemesis had ceased its path to New York. It was now heading elsewhere.

"Dispatching multiple squadrons will enable us to pursue all four coordinates simultaneously."

"Lord Megatron, I have assembled the mining detail you requested for the first set of coordinates." Knockout entered the room with a squad of vehicons following him. "Breakdown and I enjoyed previous success retrieving Iacon relics. In memory of my fallen comrade, I intend to do the same again."

"This is a mission, not one of your racing excursions." Megatron was losing his patience with Knockout. "Stop your preening!" Aaaaand, the patience is gone. "Move quickly and operate with a surgeon's skill! Do you understand me, Knockout?!"

"Explicitly, lord Megatron."

"Now, since the unfortunate loss of Breakdown has left you rather vulnerable, you will require appropriate support." A trio of insecticons was standing behind Knockout.

"How very repellant."

"That's the idea."

Autobot outpost omega-1...

"Here's a twist. It would appear that the Decepticons have retreated from Manhattan." Ratchet stated as he detected the ship's signal moving away from the city.

"They just up and left?"

"It is more likely that Megatron has already set course for the second set of coordinates, having dispatched a unit to this relic's underground location."

"Without busting up a city block to get to it?" Arcee asked. "New York is a crowded city, how'd they get to it easily?"

"They used subway tunnels." Jack said. "We may not have gone in them when we were there, but New York has a whole network of them running beneath the city."

"Since the human population no longer seems to be directly threatened, maintaining our disguise will be necessary." Optimus said. "Arcee, Bumblebee, you are the best choices to navigate through such a densely populated area."

"Optimus, New York has more than 8 million people. The odds of being spotted by at least one of them are pretty high, even if they are headed underground. Remember when I was on the news as Waspinator?"

"Where are you going with this?" Arcee asked. "I could just use my ID mask."

"You're gonna need a face man."

"A what?"

"Someone who can speak on their behalf. A human who can run interference if their cover gets blown."

"Well, I've actually been in subway stations and unlike Jack here, I know how to navigate the big city, unlike Mr. 'I can't go anywhere outside of Alamo Nevada without getting attacked' who lives under the assumed name Mr 'I got trapped in an ice cream truck for an hour.'

"I have been to cybertron, and in my defense, the Omnitrix wouldn't recharge."

"Cybertron doesn't have subways. Does it?"

"It does." Bulkhead responded.

"Agent Fowler's field experience makes him our best candidate." Optimus turned to see the currently recovering agent Fowler.

"Banana fish!"

"If he weren't still recovering for his encounter with the Decepticon warship."

"Which we survived without incident." Miko said.

"Very well." Optimus said. "Miko and Jack will accompany Arcee and Bumblebee."

"Yes!" Miko cheered.

"Initiate transport, and triangulate coordinates of the other three relics."

New York...

The four exited the ground bridge in an alley p.

"Whoa." Jack looked up to see the tall buildings. "Never saw this part of New York."

"Of course, it's no Cybertron."

"All right, face, how do we get underground?" Arcee asked.

"Well, you can't just jump the turnstiles and hope no one notices."

Bumblebee's horn honked.

"Check it out!" Miko said as Arcee and Jack followed them. "Construction. A fact of life in the big city."

The two autobots and their human allies drove down into the tunnels. When they knew, or as we later learn, thought, were out of sight, they transformed and were walking down the subway tunnel.

Bumblebee was about to step on something dangerous.

"Bumblebee, don't move!" Electricity arced to his foot. "The third rail. It carries electricity to power the subway trains.

"One touch and zap! You're fried."

Bumblebee wired as he avoided stepping on it.

"He must have learned about that on TV or something." Miko said.

"That 'or something' was when we were last here, as Chromastone, well, let's just say I found out the hard way that whatever he's made of conducts electricity."

Elsewhere...

The Decepticon drill was tunneling through the walls of the subway tunnels.

"Could we please pick up the pace? The humidity down here is threatening to corrode my undercarriage."

Knockout noticed that the trio of insecticons was standing behind him. And they were annoying him.

"Must you hover?!"

With the members of Team Prime...

"Are we getting any closer?"

"Triangulating the coordinates is one thing but figuring out how to reach them through this maze is another. And we don't have a piece of the relic so you could track its sent with Wildmutt."

They heard a sound coming from a good distance away.

"Drilling." Arcee said, as she, Bumblebee, Jack, and Miko looked down a tunnel.

"It's coming from this way!" Miko ran down the tunnel.

"Miko!" Jack ran after her. "Miko, what is your-"

A bunch of lights were shined on them. "Hold it right there!" An African American man said through a megaphone. He wore an orange vest with reflective material, blue jeans, a hard hat, and a white t-shirt.

"Scrap." They both said.

"What are you kids doing down here?" The man asked as he approached them.

"We're on a field trip with our school. But we got lost." Miko lied.

"Oh, really?"

"I told him we should stay with our group, but Leonard here - insisted we search for fossils."

"My bad."

"I want to go home. Can you help us, mister..."

"Vogel." He said through the megaphone. "But you can call me Vogel." He said normally. "So, ever ride a sweeper train?"

As they walked towards the train, they noticed that Arcee and Bumblebee had crawled through the tunnel.

"Face." Jack said.

Later...

The train that Vogel, Miko, and Jack were in drove down the track. Vogel decided to give a little history lesson.

"And this section was added in the '30s as part of a public-works project."

"Fascinating."

"But these old tunnels have a dark side, too. Strange creatures have been said to lurk down here. Giant snakes, albino alligators, even mole men."

"Okay, the first two might be true, but the 'mole men' are just people who live down here because they have no place else to go, right?"

"That's what the media wants you to believe. But I say, they're from outer space." Miko was motioning for Jack to come hop off with her. "I'm telling you, Area 51's got nothin' on this place. The aliens are down here, building up their army, plotting to use us humans as slave labor. And they've been getting more daring since those monsters have been showing up all over the country

"Aliens, huh? If he only knew." (A.N. When I was rewatching transformers prime, this is one of the the lines that inspired me to write this little story.)

With Arcee and Bumblebee...

"I'm picking up a locator beacon." Arcee looked at a scanner. "The 'Cons have unearthed the relic." They ran over to a turn and looked around the corner. They saw the 'cons drilling.

"Well? Let me see it already!" Knockout demanded when he saw the relic container.

"Lock and load." Arcee said as one of the insecticons approached them from behind.

The insecticon roared before it charged at them. Bumblebee and Arcee started firing at the insecticon. The insecticon fired at Bumblebee.

"Attack, already!" Knockout commanded the vehicons under his command.

"I'll get the relic!"

Arcee swiftly took out the drones, since just a few days ago she fought creatures made out of solid rock. She was cut by the buzz saw Knockout.

"You have lovely features, perfect for a painful little procedure I call the nip and tuck." Knock tout lunged at Arcee, but she dodged it. She got behind him and sidekicked him.

"Dodge and kick." Arcee went to try to grab the container, but it was stuck in there pretty tight.

The insecticons was on the ceiling as bumblebee attacked it. The insecticon force bumblebee on against the wall. It punched bumblebee, knocking him out.

Knockout zapped Arcee with his electric prod as she tried to get the relic out

"Shock and drop."

Elsewhere...

Miko and Jack walked down the tunnels.

"Uh-"

"This way." Miko ran off.

"How do you know?" Jack ran after her. "Miko, let's think this through.

"Why? 'Cause you think I don't know what I'm doing? 'I'm Jack! Optimus picked me to go to Cybertron, and then I got lucky and found the Omnitrix, so I must know everything!'" Miko complained.

"Okay, Miko, seriously if that's what's bugging you, then why didn't you say something before?"

"I've been holding it in."

"Since when do you hold anything in?" Jack questioned. "Look, it's not like you don't contribute. Just yesterday, you helped take down a psychotic Decepticon warship. This isn't a competition! I-"

Vogel had found them. "Lost, huh? You two are gonna have to explain yourselves to the New York transit authority."

"I think we should tell him the truth."

"Right..." Jack said. "The truth is we lost our dog."

"You're wasting your breath." Vogel wasn't buying it.

"The real truth." Miko said. "We're trying to prevent aliens from digging up a powerful ancient relic so they can't use it to destroy our planet."

"I swore I heard something weird and high-pitched earlier today, something that wasn't the crew drilling over on track 5." Vogel believed them.

Back at the drill site...

Bumblebee was being dragged by one of the insecticons to knockout. His unconscious body was tossed on Arcee's.

Knockout opened the relic container.

"Now, shall we see precisely what you are and what you do?" The relic was a device that had four spikes attached to a cylinder shaped component. "And what better way to learn your power than to conduct an on-site experiment?" He was about to attach it to bumblebee.

The train that Vogel and the kids were in sped down the track. They saw Arcee, Bumblebee and the Decepticons.

"Mole men! Metal ones!"

"Actually, Decepticons."

"And they have Arcee and Bumblebee." Jack was about to activate the Omnitrix.

"Vogel, this thing have another gear?"

"Abso-Freakin'-Lutely!" He said.

The train sped up. Knockout saw the lights as it approached. The insecticons got out of the way, but Knockout wasn't so lucky. He was forced against the side of the tunnel. His paint was being destroyed.

"Hey! Watch the finish!" One of the insecticons growled and shot the train.

Arcee and Bumblebee were starting to come to. They shot at them. "Hate to run, but I just missed my train." Knockout transformed and drove off.

"Follow the relic. I'll grab Jack and Miko." Arcee was using her advantage of agility over the insecticons' advantages of superior numbers and larger size. Arcee dodged their stacks and managed to get an opening to transform and drive off after them.

With Jack, Miko, and Vogel...

"Not good." Vogel said. "Brake line must have been torched."

"We can't stop?" Jack panicked.

"No big deal. These tracks go 'round for miles, right, Vogel?"

"Not this one." A beeping noise was heard.

"This track dead-ends, as in crash and burn?"

"I'm really starting to hate trains! Jack, try and see if Upgrade can do something!"

"Vogel, don't overreact to this." Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed. "Upgrade!"

"Woah! You're one of those monsters who fights the aliens."

"Actually, he's one of the good aliens."

"There's good aliens?"

"Yeah, the Galaxy is a big place."

Arcee drove up from behind them, transformed and landed on the top of the train.

"What was that?" Vogel asked. He saw Arcee's robot mode. He grabbed a fire ax and was about to attack her. "Welcome to Earth!"

"Vogel, no!" Upgrade shouted. He took the axe out of his hands.

"She's one of the good guys!"

"Arcee, the brakes are shot!" Upgrade said.

"Is there any kind of emergency override?"

"N-No, ma'am! But there is a switch-track control up ahead." Vogel explained. "If you can just adjust the pole rod You'll know it when you see it. It'll re-route us to another line."

"On it. Jack, see what you can do." She let go of the train and transformed. She drove off.

"Did she just turn into a motorcycle?" They heard the roar of the approaching insecticons. "And that would be?"

"Trouble."

Upgrade possessed the train. He tried to stop,or at least slow down the train by getting the wheels to scrape up against each other.

"Ow!" That only caused him pain. "Well, I got nothing." Upgrade said as he went back to normal.

Elsewhere...

Knockout drove down the tunnels. He had the relic on the driver's side. He saw Bumblebee in the rear view mirror.

"Well, well, look who got his treads back." They came to a Y junction and turned to head down it, Knockout still in the lead.

Back with the rest...

Arcee continued to outrun the train. She made it to the switch track lever. She transformed and started to pull it. She didn't switch the tracks as the handle broke off.

"Scrap!" Arcee shouted. She pushed against the track with her feet. She switch the rails just in time.

"Yes!" Upgrade shouted before reverting into Jack.

"Alright." Vogel was relieved.

"Sweet!" Miko cheered.

Arcee saw the approaching insecticons. One of them charged at Arcee while the other two continued chasing the train.

Arcee was slammed against the ceiling. She saw the electricity of the third rail arcing and got an idea.

"Come to mama."

The insecticon in insect mode approached her. It transformed an punched. Arcee dodge it and got a few shots in. The insecticon punched again. Arcee blasted its back and after deploying her blade rolled underneath its legs and delivered an uppercut. That sent the insecticon back. Arcee fired at the insecticon as it leaped at her, but it tripped up and fell short and slid onto the third rail. The electricity killed it.

"Shock and drop." Arcee made another one liner.

Elsewhere...

The distance between Bumblebee and Knockout was getting smaller and smaller. Bumblebee slammed against the side of knockout, causing the striker Z to spin out of control. Bumblebee transformed and grabbed onto Knockout, and tossed him. That caused him to transform. Knockout dropped the relic and growled as he saw Bumblebee running to collect it.

The train was approaching them as they fought over the relic.

"Hoo! We're in the clear."

"Still need a way to stop beside slamming into a wall, I mean." Vowels stated.

"Or, we could try one of Jack's aliens."

"Hmm, that worth a shot." Jack activated the Omnitrix and was going to transform into Diamondhead, but... His hands got more rounded, as did his entire body. He got bigger, not Humungousaur big, but the change in height was noticeable. Yellow bits of pad like armor grew on his back, forearms, shoulders, and now stubby legs. His skin was now white. He now had four fingered hands. His transformation was complete.

"Cannonbolt!" He announced. "Hmm, new alien. No time to test his abilities, so hang on!" Cannon lot grabbed onto Vogel and Miko. He curled up into a ball and broke through the back of the train. It had no effect on the trains speed.

When they were off the rails, Cannonbolt unrolled and Miko and Vogel we tossed in front of him. They saw the two insecticons approach them. Cannonbolt grabbed them again and rolled down the tunnel.

Bumblebee and Knockout both leaped at the relic, Bumblebee grabbing on to it while Knockout tried to get a hold of it.

"Give me that!" Bumblebee held the relic out of Knockout's reach.

In their struggle, Bumblebee dropped the relic, causing it to activate. It started to glow turquoise. As Knockout dragged Bumblebee, he kicked Knockout, sending the mad doctor back. The relic attacked itself to Bumblebee's left wrist. (A.N. No, I'm not going to have Bumblebee say 'Look, Jack, it's like yours.' No, I'm saving that for when Smokescreen shows up.) Bumblebee inspected the device as the now empty train neared him.

Cannonbolt arrived to try to warn Bumblebee. He unrolled and the two human passengers got off of him.

"Watch out!" Cannonbolt shouted.

"Bumblebee!" Miko screamed as she, Cannonbolt, and Vogel flinched. The train passed right through the scout. However, Knockout was not so lucky, the train did even more damage to his paint job. The train was stopped.

"Bumblebee!" Miko, Vogel, and Cannonbolt ran over. "Dude!"

"How did you not get mashed?" Cannonbolt asked.

Arcee drove up from behind Bumblebee and transformed

"I think it was whatever this was." Bumblebee whirred.

"Phase shifter." Arcee explained. "Handy when you need to pass through solid objects." She stuck her hand through Bumblebee's chest. "Or vice versa." Bumblebee removed the phase shifter. "A handicap against Necrofriggians and Ectonurites."

"Who?" Cannonbolt asked.

"Big Chill and Ghostfreak."

Knockout looked at his reflection. He was a wreck.

"No. No-o-o-o-o! You scratch my face, I scratch yours!" He saw that he was outnumbered. But, he saw the approaching insecticons and took his leave. He drove off. He was so damaged that a wheel fell off of his alt mode.

"Insecticons!" Arcee shouted as she and Bumblebee drew their weapons.

"I'll handle these guys." Cannonbolt said. He curled up into a ball. "Just sit back and watch the show. Cannonbolt rolled in their direction. He somehow jumped and rammed into the horn of the leader, causing the pair to bump into each other. They transformed into robot mode and fired at him, but their shots had no effect on his armor. Cannonbolt charged at them, rolling up the legs of one and grinding up the chest, eventually working up enough momentum to roll up and break the head off. The other insecticon punched, but Cannonbolt got out of the way. He rolled up his arm and knocked off his shoulder pads. Before he could roll off the other arm, the insecticon grabbed a hold of him and tossed him. He was bouncing down the tunnel.

"Arcee, help him out!" Miko shouted.

Arcee managed to stop Cannonbolt from bouncing around and stood on his ball form.

"Sorry if this hurts." Arcee then kicked him like a soccer ball and sent him flying at the insecticon. When he hit the target, he knocked off right side of his upper torso. That managed to kill it. Cannonbolt rolled over to the other four before returning to normal.

"He knows." Jack said. "Do we have to take him with us?"

"To the mother ship?" Vogel asked.

"I think I have a work-around."

Autobot base...

"That's right, soldier! Dump that rock and come on home!" Fowler shouted while Bulkhead achieved his goal of getting rid of the tox-en. He got a phone call. "Fowler. Miko, what is it? What in the sam hill? I'm in the middle of a crisis here, and you want me to uh put him on the line."

Back in the subway tunnels...

Miko held out her phone and handed it to Vogel.

"Mr. Vogel, this is special agent William Fowler of the United States government. You are hereby deputized as an honorary agent for the department of, um interstellar relations."

"Thank you, sir." Vogel handed the phone back to Miko. "So you folks will be in touch?"

"Abso-Freakin'-Lutely!"

"But until then, we need to maintain complete radio silence." Arcee responded.

"It's been an honor." He saluted. Arcee and Bumblebee returned it. They turned and walked off.

"Good call, face." Jack said.

"Eh, I understand big-city people who spend way too much time below ground."

"One relic down, three to go." Arcee said. "Let's hope the others are having similar results." They transformed. Jack got on Arcee, Miko got in Bumblebee.

"Robots who turn into vehicles." He looked at his train and thought about that idea.

With Arcee, Jack, Miko, and Bumblebee...

It was still day time in New York, so Miko made a suggestion.

"Hey, we weren't told when to report back, and seeing as we didn't get to spend as much time in New York City when we were here as part of our trip, can we go look around the big apple?"

"Sure. I brought my ID mask. Hold on." Jack got off of Arcee and Arcee drove to a spot where none of the people could see her. She transformed and placed the ID mask on, going from Arcee to Sadie. She got in the driver's seat of Bumblebee's alt mode. Jack was riding shotgun, and Miko was in the back.

"Okay, where to?" She asked. Bumblebee drove off.

"Someplace to eat, I'm starved."

"Um, Miko, I didn't bring my wallet, and I don't think Arcee has any money."

"That's where you're wrong partner." Arcee held out a silver cube that was one inch in size.

"What's that?"

"A credit cube."

"And what's it worth?"

"It's like a debit card, not a coin."

"Wait, you have a bank account?"

"Yeah, but not on Earth. You see, before the war escalated to a world destroying scale, I made the decision to open an account on, I think KO-35. And Before you ask, it has the ability to do this." The cube turned into a debit card. "And it can be used on earth with any currency."

"Okay, so lets go eat!" Miko shouted.

Later...

After eating lunch, Miko, Sadie, and Jack were walking through downtown New York.

"So Jack, where do you want to go?" Miko asked.

"I heard of this store called image anime. Why don't we go there?"

"Sure."

Suddenly, they heard a siren. An armored car sped down the street. A couple of police cars drove after it.

Bumblebee drove up in his vehicle mode. The doors opened.

"Jack."

"I know. I know. It's hero time."

Soon...

The armored car made it to the interstate with the cops driving behind it and Bumblebee behind them. Jack wasn't in the car.

He had transformed into Diamondhead earlier and had set a trap. The armored car hit a patch of the crystals that Diamondhead could generate. The car was totaled and forced to stop. One of the two crooks got out and had a hostage with him. The other crook got out and fired a lightning gun at one of the police cars. Unbeknownst to him, Diamondhead was standing behind him. The one with the gun was going to fire at Diamondhead, not that it would do anything, but the petrosapien cut the gun in half. He tried to run, but when he got ten feet away, he squinted and a mass of crystals lifted him into the air.

The other crook was trying to see what was going on. But the hostage gasped, Alerting Diamond to his presence. He turned his hand into a blade and that caused the crook to release the hostage and surrender.

On Vilgax's ship...

The confrontation was being viewed by Vilgax on the news.

"We don't know where these strange creatures come from, but they seem to be here to help."

"The Omnitrix, wasted on pointless heroics!" Vilgax complained.

"Shall I dispatch more drones to retrieve it?" One of the humanoid robots asked.

"No." The tube that contained Vilgax's recovering body opened up, revealing body that was much larger and more intimidating than he was before. "I will see to this task myself."

Chapter end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. And we're done with the relic hunt. I won't be doing all the parts of it since really, only this one is important to the narrative that I'm making.


	12. Arrival

New York City...

A ground bridge opened and the Autobots drove through it. Miko was listening to some heavy metal music.

"We got the phase shifter! And we messed up knockout's face!" Miko cheerfully sung, jamming to the music.

Bumblebee buzzed to show his distaste for Miko's favorite music.

"Let me guess, you and Raf spend all your drive time listening to chiptunes?"

Bumblebee agreed with that statement.

"Well, it's been fun, but I'm ready to get back to my regularly scheduled partner Bulkhea-ah!" Bumblebee came to a screeching halt as Arcee was parked in the way, probably to prevent them from crashing into an unconscious Bulkhead.

The car door opened and Miko got out to see Ratchet trying to wake Bulkhead up from his coma. He was using defibrillators to try and get his heart, or spark in this case to start beating.

"Bulkhead, respond!" Ratchet shouted before zapping the comatose Autobot.

"Bulkhead." Miko said sadly.

Ratchet scanned him with the device on his arm. Instead of the usual blue, the beam was red, as if to show something that shouldn't be there. Miko tried to run up, but Fowler stopped her. "What happened?!" Miko asked.

"Tox-en exposure, among other things." Ratchet said. "Bulkhead has suffered a complete systems failure."

"Hold on, Tox-en?" Arcee asked.

Ratchet stopped scanning Bulkhead. He saw on his display that bulkhead was in the red in one very vital category. "Help me get him into the medical bay, now!"

Arcee and Bumblebee went to go help Ratchet move the fallen titan, dragging his heels on the floor, making a screeching sound.

"No!" Miko yelled. She broke free of Fowler's grasp. "If I hadn't gone to New York..." Miko sadly said.

"There's nothing you could've done. Hardshell sucker punched the big lug while he was down."

"Who?" Miko angrily asked.

"Some insecticon. It doesn't matter, point is, it's not your fault, you got that?" Fowler sternly said.

"Got it." Miko said as she walked outside.

"But Bulkhead's condition is not our biggest concern."

"What the heck did you say?!" Miko furiously shouted.

"We have a bigger crisis on our hands. Look."

"Images from Nasa have been confirmed to not be from this planet. It is unknown what it is." A picture of Vilgax's now repaired ship was shown.

"No." Ratchet said in disbelief and horror.

"Ratchet, whose ship is that?" Jack asked.

"I don't know."

"Then why are you so worried?" Fowler asked.

"That is an Annihilator class starship. Just one of those has more than enough firepower to take over if not completely destroy a class M planet like the earth a hundred times over. Believe it or not, that's not the first one of those ships I've seen."

"The cons have one, right?"

Jack got a phone call from his mom.

"Jack, tell Ratchet to bridge me to base. We need to go somewhere." June said.

"Ratchet, mind opening up a ground bridge for my mom?"

"Rafael."

"On it." The vortex opened and the Rust Bucket drove into the base. June exited it. "Ratchet, I absolutely need to get to Rapid City ASAFP."

"Very well. Miko, you may stay with Bulkhead while I attempt to repair him. Rafael, you may stay if you want to, but you may go with Nurse Darby and Jack."

"Raf, come with Jack and I, we might need your help with something."

Later, outside Rapid City...

June drove down the highway as fast as she could go.

"Uh, mom, what's with the lead foot?"

"I want to make mt Rushmore by nightfall."

"Hey Raf, do you think Bulkhead will be alright?" Jack asked.

"I hope so. Miko won't be the same if something happens to him. Let's just hope that she doesn't do anything rash." Raf said. (A.N. This chapter takes place during the events of the episode Hurt.)

Vilgax's ship...

"The Omnitrix has been activated. Pinpoint its location." Vilgax said as he sat on his throne. On a monitor, a map was shown with the Omnitrix dial blinking.

Rust Bucket...

Raf was playing one of his computer games before his computer started to act up.

"Hey, what gives?"

Upgrade's face was shown on the screen.

"Sorry, but your computer is being commandeered for reasons of the utmost importance."

"Jack, get out of my computer!"

"Sorry, I'm just nervous."

"Well, if you're gonna use Upgrade's abilities on it, could you at least improve it?"

"Sure." The computer turned black and white and grew three spider like legs. "Sike!" Upgrade started jumping around the inside of the camper. "What's this? A love letter? Dear Kai, I am really excited to see-"

"Jack knock it off!"

"Jack, now is not the time to go alien, you understand?"

"Sorry, I was just getting nervous is all." Upgrade left the laptop, leaving it sleeker than it was before he entered it.

"We can't afford to attract attention right now."

"What kind of attention could I attract in here?" Upgrade's Omnitrix dial blinked, reverting him to being Jack Darby.

"Never mind." Jack and Raf looked at June like she was crazy.

Vilgax's ship...

"We have lost the Omnitrix's signal." One of the drones said.

"No matter. I have narrowed down its location." On some screens he looked at still images of Jack's various alien forms. "I know just how to draw this earthling out." He punched a monitor that had a picture of Diamondhead rescuing a kitten from a tree.

Back on earth...

Vilgax's ship flew over a herd of buffalo. A compartment opened and numerous drones that resembled a beetle if you removed the wings and replaced the head with red visor like optics flew out of it. A gigantic sphere that had maroon spikes and was the same dark orange as the ship and drones landed on the ground and headed towards the city.

One of the drones fired a red laser at a sign that read 'Welcome to Rapid City' as the drones and spike ball approached the city.

In the Rust Bucket...

Jack was reading his Kamen Rider Spirits graphic novel when he saw smoke coming from the nearby city.

"What's going on over there?"

"I'm sure the local authorities have the situation well in hand." June said.

In Rapid City...

The drones were attacking things just to cause damage. People were panicking as the police tried to fight them off, but to no avail. The spiked ball tore through the buildings. One of the drones hit a gas station, causing a massive explosion, one that could be seen from the Rust Bucket.

Rust Bucket...

Jack saw the explosion and was second guessing what his mom said about the authorities being able to handle this.

"Looks like it's hero time!" Jack shouted.

"Jack, now isn't the time to-"

"Time to put those guys on ice." He selected Big Chill to transform. He slammed down the dial. Red orange rocks went up his arm, covering his whole body. A fire got ignited. "Heatblast!" The pyronite announced. "Eh, I can work with this." He opened up the door to the Rust Bucket and jumped out. He took off like a rocket and flew towards the city. June stopped the Rust Bucket as she and Raf exited it to see Jack flying towards the city.

Rapid City...

People were running from the drones as they continued their rampage. The police officers were trying to evacuate the people from the combat zone. However, a boy was cornered by a pair of the drones. They were about to fire at him if they weren't destroyed by a couple of fireballs.

Heatblast fired at the drones as they pursued the escaping people.

"Alien, stand down!" One of the officers shouted. "We have it handled from here."

Heatblast looked around and said. "Really? Sure fooled me. I'll handle the drones you and your buddies get the civilians out of here."

"Got it."

One of the drones shot the guy Heatblast was speaking with, cracking his body armor.

"Hey, why don't you pick on someone with real firepower." Heatblast looked around to see that there were many drones around him. "I didn't mean all at once." A thought ran through Jack's head that he then vocalized. "Oh man, why do I get the feeling you were expecting me?"

He used a gigantic spout of flames to destroy the drones that surrounded him. More drones approached him. He fired a couple of curved 'blades' of flame, slicing through a couple of the drones. He continued firing at the drones until they were all destroyed.

A 'web' of blue plasma hit Heatblast and bound him to the side of a building. The giant spike ball approached him and stopped about ten yards away from him and opened up to be similar in shape to a deactivated energy sword from Halo. The door in the center opened up to reveal its driver, Vilgax. Vilgax stepped out and approached Heatblast.

Vilgax looked very different from before the incident that left him close to death. He now had more muscular arms, as well as an overall bulkier appearance. He was knee wearing a breathing mask on his face between the attachments that resembled the eyes on the drones. The tentacles on his face were now longer. There was a yellowish green spot around his left eye.

"You! You're the alien I saw in Rojo's head!"

"At last we meet." Vilgax said, glaring at Heatblast. "The being that has caused me so much trouble."

"Who are you?"

"I am Vilgax, and I have come for the Omnitrix."

"I take it you're not one of the good guys." Heatblast concentrated and managed to melt the emitters, freeing himself. He propelled himself up into the air and wa going to strike Vilgax with a flaming ground pound. When it connected, it did no damage. Heatblast rapidly punched Vilgax's shins, but that didn't seem to even annoy him. Vilgax picked up the pyronite and tossed him down the street and after bouncing off the pavement, he crashed into a building, somehow being sent sailing through not one, not two, but three buildings and finally stopping when he hit the fourth one.

Heatblast emerged from the pile of rubble.

"Okay, this guy's really tough." Vilgax leaped over the buildings and landed about fifty feet from Heatblast. "I gotta slow him down." Heatblast blasted the road with his flame blast, making the asphalt become molten. The air pressure of the blasts sent waves of it at Vilgax, tripping him and making him fall into them tar. Heatblast approached him with a confident look on his face as the Rust Bucket drove around the corner.

June saw the currently immobilized being that her son was approaching and was horrified. "No! It can't be!"

"Not so tough when you can't move, huh?" Heatblast taunted.

The Rust Bucket drove up and was between Heatblast and the molten mess Vilgax was caught in. The door opened and Raf was standing in the doorway.

"Jack, your mom says get in, now!" Raf was concerned, but not for the same reasons as June.

"What are you talking about?" Heatblast said. "I'm just about to roast calamari face over here." The Omnitrix time out, reverting Jack back into a human.

"Jackson, get in!" June ordered. Jack complied as the Rust Bucket drove off.

Jack was sitting in the seat next to June.

"Believe me when I say, you do not want to pick a fight with Vilgax."

"Uh, how do you know his name is Vilgax?" Raf asked.

"Mom, what aren't you telling us?" Jack asked.

Before June could explain, the RV was shot at by a couple of the drones. She swerved to avoid their blasts, sending Jack and Raf into the back of the camper. Jack opened the shades on the back window to see the pursuers.

"Two robot goons closing in fast!" Raf shouted.

"Hold on." The drones continued to fire at the Rust Bucket. June dodge their blasts every time.

"We can't keep this up forever." Raf said after walking to the front of the camper.

"Things are gonna get a whole lot worse if we don't get to mt Rushmore."

Jack was being tossed around in the back.

"Why? What's at mt Rushmore?"

"Raf, this is not the time to explain." June said. "You two are gonna have to trust me."

"Well, I'm not going down without a fight!" Jack said. He transformed into "Stinkfly! Yes!" The insect like alien walked towards the door.

"Jack, wait!" June yelled. Stinkfly had exited the RV and flew out. The drones fired at him as he approached them. Stinkfly dodged their shots and managed to land on one of them. After the other drone fired a volley of four shots at Stinkfly spit green slime at the the drone's laser. When it tried of fire again, the drone exploded. Stinkfly went to the rear section of the drone that he was on and used his razor sharp tail blade to stab the thrusters, causing it to fly out of control.

Stinkfly flew over to the wreckage and hovered above it, triumphantly stating: "Float like a butterfly, but sting like a Stinkfly." Vilgax leaped at Stinkfly, grabbing on to his stinger like tail. Stinkfly tried to fly away, but Vilgax's grip was too strong.

"Give me the Omnitrix!" Vilgax ordered. Stinkfly in response spat more of the slime at Vilgax, costing him in a cocoon of the stuff that when he landed on the ground, he burst out of and leaped at stinkfly again, but missed this time.

"Who is this guy?" Stinkfly asked.

Vilgax landed about thirty feet from the Rust Bucket. June did a u-turn and drove the other way.

"Where are we going? You have to help Jack!" Raf shouted.

We will, but first we need to get some special help." June said as she put the petal to the metal and drove as fast as possible.

"At mt Rushmore?" Raf asked, not sure if June was kidding. He didn't see a smile on her face, only something that she had dubbed the 'serious face'. "Mrs Darby, you're really freaking me out."

Stinkfly, meanwhile was flying over the tops of the buildings, with Vilgax in hot pursuit. Vilgax managed to grab onto Stinkfly. The two of them crashed into a building, destroying it.

Vilgax still had Stinkfly in his grasp.

"I grow tired of this." Vilgax spoke. He held Stinkfly in his left hand by the back of the clothing that the Lepidpterran wore. One of the claws on his right hand glowed red. He touched it to the Omnitrix dial on Stinkfly's chest, turning him back into Jack. Vilgax now held the human teen by the back of his jacket and his shirt.

"Hey! How'd you do that?!" Jack was starting to panic.

"A child?! The Omnitrix is in the hands of a mere child?!" Vilgax went in to try and yank off Jack's arm, but a burst of green energy sent Vilgax flying back into a building. "It appears the Omnitrix has already merged with you own DNA." Vilgax approached Jack. Jack tried to get away but he was caught by Vilgax.

"I don't suppose that means you're gonna let me go."

"Hardly." As if commanded by thought, the spiked ball that Vilgax used as transportation rolled up and opened up. Vilgax tossed Jack in and then entered himself. The sphere closed and drove through several of the buildings.

Near mt Rushmore...

The Rust Bucket Drove up a road that was near the mountain. It was a rather bumpy ride.

"I don't think tourists are allowed on this road." Raf said.

"We're not tourists, we're tenants." June said as she came up to a sign that said road closed. She pressed a button that was under the dashboard. The ground shook and the Rust Bucket was being lowered. It eventually stopped when it reached a dark chamber. The lights came on a few seconds later, revealing the other worldly design of the structure.

June and Raf walked to an area that had many rectangular shaped panels along the walls.

June walked up to one and pressed the button that was above it. It opened to reveal a strange green blasters. She opened another one and found a weapon that resembled a classic raygun.

"Mrs Darby!" Raf shouted; he was starting to get frustrated. "Could you please tell me what's going on? Why aren't we helping Jack? What is this place? And how do you know about that alien guy who's after Jack?" June placed on a visor that was attached to two cables. She also had a grey vest on that had wires attached on it.

"Well, it's kinda complicated. But let's just say," She pulled out of the storage compartment a large blue and grew gun with a cylindrical barrel that was dark blue and had a light blue interior, a blue glass cylinder that was at a 45 degree angle from the handle. It was a weapon that needed to be held with two hands, but not because of the weight. "my dad wasn't exactly a normal plumber before he retired." The cylinder had arcing blue electricity in it.

Vilgax's ship...

Vilgax looked over scans of Jack.

"A child. I should've suspected as much. The Omnitrix being used as a plaything."

Jack was suspended by blue energy cuffs that were attached to his ankles and right wrists, while his left wrist was held in a gigantic metal cylinder.

"Hey! I've saved a lot of people with it!"

Vilgax walked over to where Jack hung.

"You hold the key to a power struggle, so ancient, so vast, it is beyond your feeble comprehension." Vilgax insulted. "Picture an entire army, each in command of an Omnitrix, and all at my command. I will be invincible. I will rule the universe!" Vilgax monologued. "And the only thing standing between me and my destiny, is you."

Two racks with many tools of torture rose up from the floor

Jack gulped as he looked at what Vilgax was going to use on him with dread.

Back at Mt Rushmore...

The Rust Bucket rose up from the lift and drove down the road.

"Mrs Darby, what's so special about whatever it is you got from there."

"This weapon is keyed into Vilgax's biosignature. Hopefully it'll take him down for good this time."

Raf gulped, not liking the sound of that. "This time?"

"There's a small red button on the inside of that cabinet, press it."

Raf did as June said. A holographic map popped up. There was a blinking red dot,

"What's this?" Raf asked.

"Gps assisted tracking system. It's locked on the Omnitrix's signal. You navigate."

Vilgax's ship...

"Prepare for takeoff." Vilgax said as he approached Jack. "Once we are in orbit, contact Megatron and tell him to arrive. I wish to allow him to see the pest who has foiled his plans be terminated." Jack was struggling to get out.

"Megatron?! You're working with Megatron?!"

"He merely learned of my ship's location and learned that you were the user of the omnitrix, so knowing that I desired it, we made a deal, neither of us interferes with the forces of the other, and on exchange, he gets to see your final moments."

Outside...

The rust bucket approached vilgax's ship as it started to take off.

"There's the spaceship!" Raf shouted as the RV drove down a hill.

"We have to get, aboard."

"Get aboard?" Raf was getting scared. "How?"

June had a devious smile as she flipped off the end of the gear shifter and pressed a red button, causing the front of the Rust Bucket to extend out, while the sides were now splayed out. The Rust Bucket sped up to supersonic speeds. It flew off the hills and into the ship.

The area they ended up in was where Vilgax was planning on slicing Jack's left hand off with what looked like a laser sword that was held like a rifle. The RV rammed Vilgax, causing him to drop the blade and be slammed into the wall. The Rust Bucket back up,about fifty feet and June exited it with the blaster she got from the plumber base and has it ready to fire.

"Claws off my son Vilgax!" June shouted.

"Mom?!" Jack was shocked to see his mom be such a badass.

"Tennyson." Vilgax said as June pulled the trigger and shot him.

June dropped the gun and ran over to try to get Jack out of the restrains Vilgax had put him in.

"Mom, you know this guy?"

"It's a long story."

A surge of electrical energy started to affect the Omnitrix.

Jack was wincing in pain as he transformed suddenly into XLR8.

"Hey," He then transformed into Diamondhead. "What's going-" Jack then transformed into Wildmutt.

"The power surge must've affected the Omnitrix." June said as Jack turned into Humungousaur. He broke out of the restraints and destroyed the machine.

Raf exited the Rust Bucket as a whole swarm of the UFO drones attacked.

"Look out!" He shouted. June and Raf ran for cover as Humungousaur punched one of the drones, only for him to transform into Ghostfreak before the punch connected.

"Oh man." He complained before turning into Grey Matter, who managed to land on one of the drones and started to rip it apart from the inside. "A little alien know how and the toaster is toast." He jumped to another drone before he became Upgrade. The drone that Upgrade possessed became a lot larger and had a circular saw blade. "Try picking on someone your own size!" Upgrade used the saw blade to slice apart two of the drones that were hovering in front of the one that he possessed.

The ship was starting to fall out of the sky

He continues to slice apart the UFO drones as June took a gigantic drill and used it to destroy the one that Upgrade had used, one he vacated it.

"I've got to get this ship under control." June said.

"She can fly a spaceship?" Upgrade turned into Waspinator.

"At this point, nothing surprises me." Raf said.

"And I didn't say fly. The most I can manage is a controlled crash." June said as she type in commands on a terminal. Vilgax got the drop on her and tossed her towards the hole the Rust Bucket made. Vilgax walked over and lightly stood on June with a single foot, not enough to kill her, but enough to cause her pain.

"Mom!" Waspinator shouted as he tasseled with one of the drones.

"Your weapon won't help Tennyson." Vilgax gloated. "As you can see, I'm much stronger than in our last encounter."

"No!" Waspinator charged at Vilgax, knocking him off of June and sending the two of them plummeting to the surface.

"No!" June shouted as she looked to see her son and her old enemy plummet to the ground.

"Jack!" Raf didn't want to lose his best friend besides Bumblebee.

As they fell, Vilgax glared at Waspinator as he transformed and slowly fluttered down. Vilgax's landed in the forest near mt Rushmore while Jack managed to make it to Lincoln's before he transformed again, this time into Ripjaws. He was unable to make it to the top of the head, instead he slid down the face and used his claws to grab onto the nose.

"Sometimes you're more trouble than you're worth Omnitrix." Ripjaws complained.

Back in the crashing ship...

June was trying to get the ship to land, but that wasn't going to happen.

"We have to get out of here!" June shouted. June and Raf looked at the Rust Bucket, but with opposite reactions. June was happy, while Raf just wanted it to be over.

On Mt Rushmore...

Ripjaws had managed to climb up Lincoln's face and was making his way to the head, but the dry environment was making him weaker and weaker.

"Can't breathe *gasp* need *gasp* water." Ripjaws collapsed and was near death. Vilgax's leaped onto the mountain from where he had landed. He managed to land near Jack. He walked over and stood over the weakened form of Ripjaws.

"You are a slippery little fish, child." Vilgax's said. "But no longer." He was about to grab Jack, but he transformed into Fast Track and sped away.

"I can still give you a run for your money!" Fast Track taunted. He ran in the direction Vilgax's was facing, making it seem like he was giving up.

"You can't run forever boy."

"Wasn't planning on it." Fast Track came up from behind Vilgax by runner around the mountain. "Peekaboo!" He tried to ram into Vilgax, but that resulted only in pain. "Oh! I'm gonna feel that tomorrow." He collapsed.

"For you, there is no tomorrow." The spikes on Vilgax's arms retracted, causing his upper limbs to bulk up. He was about to slam his fist down and crush Fast Track, but he got up and ran out of the way. All Vilgax did was destroy the face of one of the presidents.

Vilgax punched at Fast Track, but he managed to dodge all the punches.

"You can't escape me!" Fast Track was going to jab at Vilgax, but Vilgax caught his hand and threw him at a chunk of rock after swinging him around by his tail. Fast Track had turned into Chromastone and was blasting his beams of UV light at Vilgax, but they had no effect. He turned into Four Arms and tried to punch and kick him, but that only resulted in hurt fists and feet. Vilgax grabbed the Tetramand and slammed him into the rock. He transformed into Big Chill. Vilgax was about to punch him and Jack flinch, unaware of the alien he had transformed into. When he realized that he transformed into Big Chill he express his satisfaction.

"Yes! Sometimes you are worth all the trouble Omnitrix." Big Chill phased though the mountain. Vilgax looked up to see his ship crashing on the other side of the mountain.

In the Rust Bucket...

June drove down the halls of the ship. Raf was sitting next to her as she drove the camper like she stole it.

"Better hang onto something. This may get a little bumpy." Raf prepared for the worst as the Rust Bucket burst through several wall, eventually bursting through the outer hull of the ship. Raf was screaming as he and June landed.

Jack meanwhile, was still Big Chill. He was exiting the side of the mountain.

"Don't switch on me now!" Big Chill begged. He saw Vilgax's crashed ship. "Oh no!" He changed into Swampfire.

"You alright Raf?" June asked.

Raf looked like he had thrown up, but he didn't.

"I'll take that as a maybe."

They heard a crashing notice.

"Jack!" They both shouted.

They didn't notice that Vilgax was in front of the Rust Bucket.

When Swampfire made it to the Rust Bucket, he found that the whole place was torn up.

"Mom! Raf!" Swampfire shouted as he looked through the rubble. He went to where the rear window would be if it weren't missing and saw that Vilgax had Raf and his mom. "No!"

He turned into Bloxx and formed the machine guns that he used before.

"It's your choice," Vilgax said. "You or them." Jack gave up. He didn't want either

Vilgax dropped June and Raf and approached Bloxx. His claw turned red before he tapped the dial, and, in a flash of red light, Jack was in place of Bloxx.

"How noble." Vilgax grabbed Jack and went to the ship.

June came to and saw Vilgax walking away with Jack.

"Vilgax, no! Don't go back in there!" June warned. Vilgax jumped through the hole in the hull,of his ship as it took off.

"Foolish earthling, why would I- the auto destruct launch sequence has been initiated!" He tried to fix the problem. But found that it was going to happen regardless. "Tennyson! You have been a thorn in my side-" Vilgax was shot by a blast of blue energy.

"My name might not be Jack Tennyson, but I guess it runs in the family." Jack said after he shot Vilgax and ran towards the hole in the ship.

"Commencing self destruct launch." A digital voice said.

"No!" Vilgax shouted, not wanting to be defeated like this.

Jack was running to the hole. He had the Omnitrix activated and then transformed into Cannonbolt.

The ship exploded. Cannonbolt crashed down unharmed.

When June and Raf ran over to check on Jack, they found that the Omnitrix had timed out.

"Mom, we need,to talk." Jack said.

"Very well. But let's at least hit the road first." June said.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. And there we have it, Jack's first of many battles with Vilgax. But how did June know about the Plumber base in Mt Rushmore? Find out next time.
> 
> And about having June be a Plumber. It doesn't seem likely. But remember Crisscross? June reacted rather well to the idea of the cybertronians. She of coarse didn't believe Jack when he told her the truth about Arcee, but that could be explained because as a former Plumber, the only sentient robots from another planet that she would have had regular contact with would have been the Galvanic Mechamorphs, and they're rather peaceful. Her reaction to Airachnid could be explained as one of fear.


	13. Secrets

In the Rust Bucket...

Jack, June, and Raf were on the road, heading home to Alamo, Nevada.

"Okay mom, talk." Jack said.

"Where do you want me to begin?"

"At the beginning. Start with how you first joined the plumbers."

"Okay." June exhaled. "It all started about thirty years ago."

Flashback...

At a nuclear missile silo, what seemed like yellow spotlights shined on the covers of the missile silos. That caused them to open up. The missiles were lifted out of the silos and up to Vilgax's ship.

Inside the silos, there was an explosion. The troops that were stationed there were swiftly defeated by drones, who shot them with red blasts of energy. When the soldiers were defeated, Vilgax, in his original form walked in. He had in his left hand a little girl that was about five or six and had dark brown, almost black hair, and wore a light white skirt, a light green shirt, and black shoes. She was crying, obviously afraid of the alien that had her in its grasp.

Two of the three drones that accompanied him were shot and destroyed by blasts of blue energy. He looked to see two humans in Plumber armor.

"You."

"It's over Vilgax!" The one who had the gun pointed at Vilgax yelled.

"You're going down!" His partner shouted.

"Many have tried, none have succeeded."

"Yeah, that'll be true for a bit longer. You shouldn't've brought June into this slime ball!" He ran at Vilgax.

"Phil, wait!" Phil had run up to Vilgax and fired at him, careful not to hit June. Vilgax jumped up and by using a drop kick, knocked off Phil's helmet. Vilgax now had both June and Phil and threatened to kill both of them. Phil had a drone's laser gun pointed at him, while June's was in Vilgax's grip in a way that he could crush her. Another drone activated the launch sequence.

"Back away, or watch one of your cities be destroyed." Vilgax evilly said. "Put the weapon down, now. He applied pressure to June, causing the six year old pain.

"Daddy! Help!"

He complied. He dropped the blaster.

"You can't just let him get away!" Phil shouted in disbelief.

"Never said I would." Using a wrist mounted blaster the other plumber shot the drone that had its blaster pointed at Phil, and then one at Vilgax's hand, making him drop Phil. Phil elbowed Vilgax, making him let go of June. He kicked Vilgax away towards the launching nuke. June ran over to the other plumber and cowered behind him.

"You're too late." Vilgax taunted.

"Wrong. My timing's perfect." He kicked up his blaster and used it to fired a net like projectile that attached Vilgax to the missile.

"No!" Vilgax shouted as he tried to break free.

"What're doing Max?!" Phil asked.

"Sending Vilgax out with a bang." Max removed his helmet.

"Tennyson!" Vilgax shouted before the Nuke collided with his ship, blowing it up.

"Daddy, is the monster gone?" June was shivering in fear.

"I hope so June." Max said. "I hope so."

"He's survived worse." Phil said.

"Yeah, but let's hope a nuclear blast to the face finally finished him off." Max agreed.

Flashback end...

"And then after that, no more Vilgax." June said. "Or so I thought. I eventually did join and I had a run in with Vilgax. After that encounter I was led to believe that he was gone for good. Until today."

"Woah, mom, you were a hero?"

"I was just a gal doing a job."

"But what exactly was that job?"

"We called ourselves the Plumbers. Officially, we didn't exist." June stated. "We were the guys and gals who fixed the problems nobody else could, extraterrestrial, extrasensory, extraordinary."

"And you recognized the Omnitrix the whole time?" Jack asked.

"Kinda, I heard rumors about it, and saw images of it." June explained. "But I was just as surprised as you when it turned up Jack's wrist."

"Mom, when you found out about the 'bots, I said I wouldn't keep secrets from you any more, guess that was only a one way street." Jack said.

The sound of sirens could be heard. June pulled over to see an ambulance and a couple of police cars pass them.

"Wonder what the problem is?" Jack asked.

"Jack, we're just gonna let the authorities deal with this." June said. "My days of being a hero are over."

"Yeah, well mine have only just begun." Jack activated the Omnitrix. He exited the Rust Bucket before he transformed.

"Jack wait!" June shouted.

"Time to XLR8!" Jack selected that hologram and slammed down on the dial. "Ripjaws!" Jack was transformed into the wrong alien. "Aw man!" Jack saw a firetruck approach. When it passed by, he grabbed on the side of it.

"Why didn't Jack use the dial on his chest to get the right alien?" Raf asked.

"The Omnitrix has ten or twenty minutes of battery life before it needs to recharge, but if Jack were to rapidly transform, it would drain it."

"Oh."

At the site of the emergency...

The fire truck, as well as the other emergency vehicles were at a hotel. The hotel's manager was outside, explaining the situation to the firefighters as they arrived.

"There's some kind of creature tearing up the place!"

It started to rain, or more accurately, Ripjaws was standing on top of the fire truck and had one of the smaller hoses pointed up in the air.

"Sorry, just need to moisturize." He said. Ripjaws leaped off the truck and ran into the building. He opened the glass doors to find the lobby torn up. But the center fountain was still working. "Okay, who's the punk giving us creatures a bad name?"

Growling was heard. It came from a creature with maroon-orange skin, bright red eyes, sharp teeth, clawed two finger hands, and three clawed feet. It would've been threatening if not for its size, it barely came up to Ripjaws' knee.

"Bwah ha ha ha ha!" Ripjaws laughed at the creature. The monster didn't take kindly to Ripjaws finding it funny and threw a piece of concrete at the fish alien. That knocked him over. "You picked the wrong day to be an alien, pal." Ripjaws said as he got up. He lunged at the creature but it managed to jump away. Ripjaws slid into the fountain.

The creature had landed on one of the marble pillars. It jumped into the fountain and after sucking up a lot of water, it sprayed it at Ripjaws.

"Ah! That's just a breath of fresh air to me!" Ripjaws said.

While this was going on, the Rust Bucket pulled up. Raf and June got out of it.

"Anyone happen to see giant talking fish come by here?" Raf asked.

Back in the hotel, the creature had scurried up one of the columns, it was out of sight Ripjaws, but not of someone else.

Ripjaws and this other guy were walking backwards towards each other. They eventually bumped into each other.

"Ah!" They both shouted. "Who are you? Who am I? Who are you?" They spoke in unison.

The man with grey hair shot Ripjaws, sending him back a good thirty feet at least.

"Looks like today's my lucky day, two aliens for the price of one." He walked over to Ripjaws, who was writhing in pain behind the front desk. "Just sit tight fish stick. I'll be back in a minute."

The smaller alien jumped down. The guy who shot Jack fired at the creature, but missed.

Ripjaws grabbed a pitcher of ice water and poured it on his head. "Ah. You gotta love room service." Ripjaws said. He saw the open hotel safe and got an idea.

The creature meanwhile was on top of a book case. It saw that the alien hunter was in front of it and was unaware that his target was there. The creature pushed the book case on the hunter, trapping him underneath it. As he tried to get up, the creature roared in victory, but unbeknownst to either the creature or the hunter, Ripjaws snuck up behind the small creature and covered it with the safe, trapping it.

"Not bad for a fish stick, huh?" Ripjaws said as the beeping of the omnitrix started to be heard. He was turned back into his human form. "Uh, gotta go." Jack said while doing an imitation of Ripjaws' voice. He ran to the front entrance to find June and Raf there.

"Jack, are you alright?" June asked.

"Barely." Jack stated. "Some nut job in there nearly roasted me."

The guy that was hunting the alien had got up from under the book case. He seemed to recognize June.

"Junebug?"

"Phil." June walked over and gave him a hug.

"Mom, you know this guy?"

"Well, you can say that." Phil said. "We used to be partners."

Later...

After the emergency crews had left, Phil was showing Jack, June, and Raf his car.

"Yeah, she's not much to look at, but it's better than that old rust bucket of an RV your old man, and now you drive."

"So, how are ya?" June asked, smiling as she did so.

"Pretty good considering I just bagged a Havok Beast. Seems like old times, right?"

"You bagged it? It was Ripj-." June placed her hand over Jack's mouth.

"Havok Beast huh?" June said. "Haven't seen one since the one you, my dad, and I caught terrorizing Denver years ago." Phil had placed the safe in the trunk of his car.

"Yeah, good thing I was around. You know, once a plumber, always a plumber. Ever think about getting back in the game June?" Phil asked. "You know, relive the glory days?"

"No thanks, I've got Jack to worry about. And don't you remember, the Earth branch of the plumbers was disbanded."

"Yeah, no thanks to you and Max. Once you two took Vilgax out of the picture, the work just seemed to dry up."

"Yeah, we were just doing our job."

"Yeah, anyway, looks like things are picking back up again. In fact, I'm starting my own freelance Plumber business." Phil noticed the watch on Jack's wrist, which normally would be hidden by the sleeve of his blue 'Team Prime' jacket, but he was just wearing a black t-shirt since his jacket was torn by Vilgax less than a day ago. "Wow, cool watch." Looks so familiar."

Before Jack could say anything, June started pushing him towards the Rust Bucket.

"Well, look at the time, nice catching up with you Phil. Happy plumbing." June said.

Later...

The Rust Bucket was driving down the highway.

"I don't get it? How come you didn't tell Phil about the Omnitrix?" Jack asked.

"It's on a need to know basis. The less people who know the better."

"Vilgax, Animo, Rojo, Airachnid, SixSix, Kraab, Hex, and possibly Zombozo, and Megatron and the Decepticons on the Nemesis, and the Nemesis itself as well." Raf listed. "They all know about Jack having the Omnitrix."

"And there's also the 'bots, Fowler, General Bryce, Kevin, Gwen, Miko, Tetrax, Vogel, Silas, and you two." Jack said. "A lot of people know because of one reason or another."

"Okay, but those are either villains or people that we've met." June said. "But Phil is not someone who needs to know."

"Hey, why don't we start up the Plumbers, you, me, Phil, maybe Arcee or Miko. We could be like the Dekarangers."

"Jack, I'm glad that you appreciate what I did, but you can't bring back the past." June said.

A monitor popped up from the glove compartment. Phil was on it.

"June, if you're out there, I need your help. Two Vulpimancers tearing up a meat processing plant on highway forty four." The screen turned black.

"Vulpimancers?" June whispered to herself. She did an illegal U-turn and went the other way.

Later...

They arrived at the meat processing plant. They heard roaring coming from inside.

"I don't like the sound of that." Raf said. The three of them entered the building.

They came to a room with hanging pieces of meat. Phil was laying on the ground.

"Phil!" June ran over and helped him up.

"June, thank goodness you showed aliens, nasty, we might need a bit of that old magic."

"No worries, we're on it."

The hissing was heard, not an animalistic his, just the sound of steam being released. When the steam cleared, two orange aliens that lack eyes and had very other worldly mouths were seen.

"Friends of yours?" Raf asked.

"Wildmutts, maybe I can talk with them." Jack said as he activated the Omnitrix.

"Jack no!" June shouted. Jack didn't stop as he transformed into Wildmutt.

"That's why I recognized the watch, it's the Omnitrix." Phil said when he saw Jack transform.

Wildmutt jumped in front of the two larger Vulpimancers.

Wildmutt's POV...(All this is in the Vulpimancers' language, which universal translators can't understand)

"Hey, what're you two guys doing here?"

"Guy?! How dare you? Ignorant pup. Are you so young that you cannot tell the difference between a male and a female?" One of the Vulpimancers growled. This one was a female.

"S-s-sorry." Wildmutt whimpered. He tried to back away, but the second one, the male bit his neck and was shaking him around like a terrier with a rat.

"Leave our territory now or die!" The male Vulpimancer barked.

"St-t-top it! Please!" Wildmutt yelped. "I'll go! I'll go!"

He tossed Wildmutt against the wall

Normal POV...

"What did you say?" Raf asked.

"Vulpimancers were never big on small talk, even with their own kind." June said as she saw Wildmutt run from the two adult Vulpimancer that were more than twice his size.

As Wildmutt ran away, the female Vulpimancer leaped at him and was ready to claw him, but Wildmutt detected her scent and jumped, grabbing a chain that allowed him to stay off the ground. The female Vulpimancer slid into a rack that had barrels. In said barrels, there were intestines.

"Gross." Raf looked like he was about to vomit.

Wildmutt thought he was safe, but the male vulpimancer bit into the chuck of meat that was being supported on a hook that was attached to the chain that Wildmutt was holding on to. He pulled on it, eventually causing the chain to snap. Wildmutt jumped to another chain, then another, then another, but all of the chains that he clung to were snapped. Wildmutt jumped onto the conveyer belt, the larger male climbed on. Wildmutt was pinned down. The male was about to bite Wildmutt's throat. The conveyer belt was heading towards a grinder.

Phil ran to the controls and shut it off, the conveyer belt stopping a few inches from the grinder.

Phil flipped a switch that caused a large chunk of meat to swing by and hit the larger Vulpimancer.

Jack leaped off of the conveyor belt and landed by Phil.

"What're partners for?" He asked. If the language of the Vulpimancers could be understood by humans, Phil would've heard Jack say that he knows the feeling.

June, Raf, Phil, and Wildmutt ran towards the exit, but before they could get to it, the female vulpimancer jumped in front of the entrance. Raf turned around to see the male approaching them.

"Don't suppose you ever considered becoming vegetarians?" Raf fearfully asked.

Phil held up a device that emitted a noise on a frequency that only Vulpimancers could hear. It cause both the two adults and Wildmutt a great deal of pain.

"Sorry about that Jack. Only way to bring down a Vulpimancer."

"Yeah. Lucky for us you had a sonic pitch whistle with you."

Wildmutt managed to tap the dial and he went back to being Jack Darby.

"So, all the stories are true." Phil said. "The Omnitrix really does exist. And Jack, pretty good moves out there. You gotta admit June, but Jack kinda seems like your dad from back in the day."

"Really?" Jack asked.

Before she could respond, she noticed the male vulpimancer had gathered enough strength to get up. She tried to warn Phil, but he was struck by the alien, causing him to drop the sonic pitch whistle, which the Vulpimancer crushed.

Jack saw that the Omnitrix still had a bit of juice left and transformed again.

"Big Chill!" He exhaled, freezing the Vulpimancer in place. That allowed June to ram into it with a forklift, sending it and the female into a storage room, which June trapped them in.

"Just like old times, eh?" Phil held out his hand. "I think this is going to be the beginning of a new partnership."

Later, at the hotel Phil and Ripjaws saved from the Havoc Beast...

"It's fate that we all met up." Phil said as he sat on the couch.

"Well, a ritzy suite. Must've cost a pretty penny." June said.

"Oh this? This is just a little thank you I negotiated after I helped the manager with his alien problem." Phil said. "And trust me, this is just the tip of the old alien iceberg."

"You mean a comet?" Raf asked, looking up from his computer.

"A comet? What would make you think that... oh I get it." Phil chuckled. "Clever kid you got there June." Phil focused on Jack. "You know Jack, you'd make a great Plumber."

"I would?" Jack asked.

"Sure, a chip off the chip of the old block." Phil said. "We'd all make a great team. With your powers, June's knowledge, and my instincts, we'd be an unstoppable team. What d'ya think?"

"I'm thinking what an odd coincidence for a hyperweasle and two mega mutts to turn up on the same day."

"Aliens, go figure."

"I, uh need some fresh air." June exited the room.

Phil scowled for a second before he regained his composure.

"Hey kids, order whatever you'd like off the room service menu." Phil said.

"Awesome!" Raf exclaimed.

"Something's going on that my mom's not telling us about." Jack reasoned. "Come on."

"And pass up free room service? No way, I'm staying here." Raf said.

"Yeah, they probably just went on some secret Plumber base with high tech gadgets." Jack said. "It's probably best if we stay out of it."

They ran down stairs and out of the hotel to find that both Phil's car and the Rust Bucket were gone.

"No mom." Jack said.

"And no Phil." Raf said.

"Where would they go?" Jack asked.

"If your mom thinks that alien weasel and those space mutts are connected, there's only one place to check out around here." Raf said.

"XLR8!" Jack announced after he transformed. He picked up Raf and placed him on his back. "Hang on, pedal to the metal!" XLR8's visor lowered. He sped off.

Mt Rushmore plumber base...

June entered a chamber that only held one thing, and that one thing was not there.

"It's gone!" June said as she saw the itemless pedestal.

"Looking for this?" Phil said. "He stood at the entrance to the chamber with a gun that had a sphere on the end.

"The Null Void projector." June said. "I thought all those aliens were familiar. You stole the Null Void projector, released the ones we caught as a team back in the old days."

"You and your dad were always too smart for your own good, June." Phil was disappointed. "But not wanting to join up with me was just plain dumb."

"Why are you doing all this?"June glared at Phil.

"Job security." Phil said. "I release an alien, and then I get some hotel manager, or mayor, or whoever to pay me to catch it."

"I'm not gonna let you get away with this."

"Yeah, I figured you were going to say that." Phil said. "Too bad, we could've made quite the team again." He fired a beam of red energy, which June dodged. The beam hit a wall and opened a swirling red and white vortex.

A green monster that was supported on four crab legs and had two three clawed hands stepped out of the portal before it closed.

"Oh, and don't worry I'll be sure to tell Jack who your last words to me were how you wanted him to follow in your footsteps as my partner."

The monster roared at June, it was about to strike her, but when it did, June was gone. The creature's claws were stuck.

"What the?" Phil was confused. A blue streak flew by besides him. He turned around to see XLR8 with June standing besides him. Phil exited the chamber.

"You're no Plumber." XLR8 said. "You're nothing but a big drip."

"And about Jack being your partner." Arcee said. "That position's taken." Phil was looking around for the source of the voice. "Up here." Arcee was standing on top of the chamber.

"A Cybertronian? Here? On Earth?"

"Arcee how'd you get here?"

"Ratchet ground bridged me here."

"Jack, listen to me. We don't need your mom, or this 'Arcee'. We could start back up the plumbers again. Just you and me."

"Forget it, and there's nothing you can do to change my mind."

"Sorry to hear that." Phil said right as the creature managed to remove its claws from the ground.

"Well then, say hello to an old friend of your mother's Jack, a Wigselian Org Beast." Phil typed something in on a keypad. A door open "I'd love to stay, but I got lots of work to do." He exited the room, leaving XLR8, Arcee, and June to deal with the monster.

The Org Beast was going to claw June again, but XLR8 got her away before Arcee kicked it, sending it against the wall.

XLR8 zoomed towards it again. It swung its left arm, but XLR8 was too fast for it to hit. It slammed its fists on the ground, something that XLR8 dodged again. The Org Beast was getting mad. XLR8 ran away from it then ran back at it from its left side, jumped up a bit and kicked it several dozen times while in midair. XLR8 zoomed around it, distracting it so that Arcee could blast it a couple of times.

While her son and Arcee engaged the Org Beast, June looked through the storage compartments. In the first one, she found a device that looked like an over sized dentist drill. "No." She looked in in another compartment. "No. No." She continued searching, but she was running out of time. "Where is it? Where is it?" Jack and Arcee were getting overwhelmed.

"Mom, could you pick up the pace?" XLR8 asked as both the beeping of the omnitrix could be heard, and the Org Beast was preparing to throw a piece of the floor at him, which hit XLR8 right before he reverted back into a human. "Because I can't."

"Aha! Found it!" June tossed a grey sphere at the Org Beast, releasing a green gas that knocked it out. She ran over to help Jack up.

"Where's Raf!" They shouted in unison.

Meanwhile...

Was walking by Phil's car as he heard the elevator beep, signifying that there was someone coming. He didn't have enough time to get to the Rust Bucket so he just jumped in Phil's car and hid under a tarp.

Phil exited the elevator and got in his car. He tossed the Null Void projector in the passenger seat.

"Ha ha. And who says crime doesn't pay?" Phil asked to himself.

After Phil's car exited the base via the lift, he drove down. Raf peered out from under the tarp.

The Rust Bucket and Arcee's alt mode exited the lift a few minutes later. Jack was in the Rust Bucket with June.

"Jack, buckle up." June said. Jack did as she said as June pressed a button, causing the panel to rotate around, revealing a lever which June pulled. The caused the satellite dishes and radio antennas to fold up, replaced by thrusters. Smaller thrusters folded out from where the tail lights were. The spare tire split down the middle to reveal another large thruster.

The thrusters switched on and the Rust Bucket now sped off at speeds that would make a seeker jealous.

Arcee couldn't believe what she just saw.

"Woah." Was all she could say. She drove after the RV, following its ion trail.

In the speeding Rust Bucket...

"So how many aliens did you store in that Null Void thing?" Jack asked.

"At least a couple of hundred, but the Null Void is a pocket dimension used by many groups, including the plumbers on multiple worlds to store criminals, so in theory, there could be millions or even billions inside of it."

Meanwhile...

Phil was completely unaware of the speeding camper heading towards him. Raf peered out from underneath the tarp. He saw the Null Void projector and reached for it. Unfortunately, Phil saw him in the rearview mirror and reached to grab it. Phil and Raf got it a struggle for the projector.

"Oh no you don't." He said as he tried to get it away from Raf. We was about to get it away from him, but in their struggle, they had gotten to the wrong side of the road and into the path of an oncoming truck. He let go of the projector to get back on the right side of the road.

"Better start thinking about a new line of work because this thing is going bye bye." Raf said after he rolled down the window and held the projector out of it.

Phil stepped on the brakes, causing Raf to drop the projector. He pressed a button on the steering wheel.

"Autopilot mode engage." Phil unbuckled and turned around. He and Raf fought over the Null Void projector. In that struggle, a portal was opened. Phil thought this would be bad, but he saw the approaching Rust Bucket and realized that it was a good thing.

"Good idea, we could use a distraction." Phil sinisterly said.

Out of the porta flew a grey creature that seemed to have Wildmutt's head, but had tentacles instead of legs and wings. This was called a Null Guardian.

"Something tells me this isn't the state bird of South Dakota." Jack said.

The Guardian attached itself to the front of the Rust Bucket, blocking June's line of vision. It broke through the window and was thrashing its tentacles around.

"We're gonna need some muscle to stop this thing, four arms of muscle." Jack activated the Omnitrix. "Grey Matter! Seriously, I need muscle not miniscule." Grey Matter ran up one of its tentacles to the main body. "Triggering the correct sequence of synapses should give me some rudimentary motor control." Grey Matter's pupils went wide. "Uh, sure wish I knew what I was talking about." He grabbed two of the quills that were on its back.

He used that to steer the Null Guardian towards Phil's car.

Phil meanwhile had managed to get the Null Void projector from Raf. However, seconds later, Grey Matter crashed the Null Guardian that he was controlling head on into Phil's car, sending it crashing into the railing of a bridge. Grey Matter was flung off of the Guardian and landed on a piece of the rail. Phil was tossed out of the driver side door and landed a few feet from the Galvan.

"Back off small fry or I'll release every alien in this thing." Phil threatened.

"Then you'll be out of a job."

"Doesn't have to be this way; we could all work together."

"No way. This is one hero who's not for sale."

"Then you're all gonna be very busy." Phil said as he prepared to fire the Null Void projector. Raf saw the broken off rear view mirror and got an idea.

"Sorry, I'm on summer vacation."

"Jack!" Raf tossed the mirror to Grey Matter, who used it to reflect the beam, making it hit Phil, knocking him back, causing him to lose his grip on the Null Void projector and get sucked into the prison dimension, where I'm sure he'll never bother anyone again.

"Seeya!" Raf said after he caught the now inactive projector.

"And I definitely wouldn't want to be ya." Grey Matter grinned.

"Who's next?" Raf asked as the Rust Bucket came to a stop.

Later, at the Mount Rushmore Plumber base...

After putting the Null Guardian back in its home, the group went back to the Plumber base to put the Org Beast back.

"And that's the last of them." June said after the Org Beast was imprisoned again. "I'm sorry I had to keep my past a secret for so long. I should've known that I could trust you guys."

"It's okay." Jack said.

"And for what it's worth Jack, you would've made a great Plumber. You too Raf."

"Hey, we've been hanging out around you so much lately, what did you expect?"

June placed the Null Void projector on the pedestal where it hovered.

"What about Phil?" Arcee asked.

"I think there's some things about this job that we're better off not knowing." June said as they exited the chamber that held the Null Void projector. "But seriously, how'd Ratchet know about this?"

"Well..."

Flashback...

Raf and XLR8 had arrived at the entrance to the plumber base.

"Jack, we might need back up." Raf said as he got off of XLR8's back.

"Good idea. You call the 'bots and tell them that we need one of them here."

Raf got out his cellphone and called Ratchet.

Autobot outpost Omega-1...

Bulkhead had started to recover from the Tox-en exposure. He was still alive, but very weak.

Arcee had just recently told Miko about how she first met Cliffjumper.

Ratchet saw the Raf was calling him and he put him through.

"Hello Rafael." Ratchet said. "Have any problems with Jack's insecticon form?"

"No, we're at Mt Rushmore and we need back up." Raf said.

"For what reason?" Optimus asked.

"There's this guy named Phil who was a friend of Mrs Darby, and she thinks he might be causing alien attacks. We don't know how, but that's what Jack and I came to the Plumber base in Mt Rushmore to find out."

"Plumber? What, you break a drain?"

"Not that kind of plumber. We'll explain it later, could one of you guys just get here ASAP?"

"I'll go." Arcee volunteered.

"That'd be good."

Flashback and Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. This chapter, as well as the previous one take place during Hurt and Out of the Past.


	14. Red Flash

Autobot Outpost Omega-1...

The Rust Bucket and Arcee's vehicle mode just drove through the ground bridge.

Raf was doing his daily clearing of conspiracy websites.

He found a picture of his guardian one of said websites.

"Removing Bumblebee..." The picture was gone leaving a black rectangle. "And replacing him with..." Raf added a flash animation of a monkey in a top hat dancing.

"The tap dancing monkey strikes again!" Grey Matter said. He and Raf high fived.

"Bumblebee sighting on the world wide web are no laughing matter." Ratchet said.

Bulkhead was going through physical therapy, with Miko helping out. He and Miko were doing leg lifts.

"Seven, eight, nine..." Bulkhead couldn't make it to ten.

"Why can't I just drive from now on?"

"Because you legs will atrophy if you choose not to use them."

Grey Matter transformed back into Jack. "Hey Miko, I never was told what you did while Raf, Mom, and I were gone."

"Wheeljack and I blew up a bunch of insecticons."

"Cool. I fought this guy called Vilgax." Jack said. "He's kinda like Megatron, except he sounds like Starscream." Jack saw a picture of a meteor. "Wait, what's that?" Raf zoomed in on it.

"A cybertronian escape pod?"

"Here in earth's atmosphere?"

Raf put the image on one of the larger monitors.

"Autobot or decepticon?" Arcee asked.

"Impossible to tell due to the image resolution."

"In any event, this merits investigation." Optimus said,

"It could be a trap, and we're down one 'bot. Should we reach out to Wheeljack?"

"I can hear you." Bulkhead was a bit annoyed.

"I don't care if Bulkhead isn't combat ready; after that revenge stunt he pulled with Miko, Wheeljack can stay rouge.

"An autobot may be in distress, Ratchet, bring your medical kit."

"Diamondhead! Optimus, with all due respect, that might not even be an escape pod, it could be a chuck of Vilgax's ship. That thing was pretty high up when it went kaboom."

At the site of the pod crash,,,

Diamondhead, Optimus, Bumblebee, Arcee, and Ratchet exited the ground bridge vortex.

There was trail of energon heading down hill from the pod. The autobots and the Petrosapien approached the pod. Arcee whiled off some of the black stuff that was on the pod to reveal a red decepticon insignia.

"It is of Decepticon origin." Optimus said.

"And the 'con inside blew his way out."

They were shot at by red blaster bolts.

Ten vehicons and three insecticons were attacking them.

Optimus, Bumblebee, and Arcee fired at them while Diamondhead formed his left arm into a shield and used that to take deflect decepticon fire while he shot crystal shards at them

"All those 'cons from one pod?"

"Humans refer to the phenomenon as a clown car."

One of the insecticons flew over the stream of energon before transforming, engaging Optimus in hand to hand combat. He defeated the insecticon before charging at the enemy.

Another insecticon had Ratchet pinned up against a wall. He would've finished the medic off if not for Arcee punching its head. The robo beetle picked up Arcee and tossed her away, where she joined Diamondhead and Bumblebee in fighting it.

They were joined by a new cybertronian, one that was mostly white and had a blue chest plate.

"Incoming!" Arcee and Bumblebee pointed their blasters at the new contact.

"Down in front!" The new arrival said. He jumped over the trio and engaged the decepticons.

"Friendly?" Arcee asked.

"Don't know, but he sure is a show off." Diamondhead said.

The new 'bot was rammed by an insecticon. He fired at it, missing and hitting the energon, igniting it.

"You idiot!" Diamondhead slammed his fists on the ground. That caused a large dome of the material he was made out of to surround him and the five cybertronians.

Rumbling was felt. A few second later, the dome disappeared.

"Woo! To hot for y'ah 'cons?!"

"Friend of yours?" Ratchet asked Bumblebee. Bumblebee didn't know who this new 'bot was.

"Never seen him before. And after seeing that stunt-"

"You're glad you finally did sweetie. Right?"

"If I was able to vomit I would." Arcee said. "You're lucky Jack here was here to shield us from the explosion. And don't ever call me 'sweetie'."

"But it was a good plan, right babe?"

"But it wasn't a plan, it was a random shot that almost fried us to a crisp. And don't call me babe. One more comment like that and I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget."

"Okay hot stuff."

"Jack, Humungousaur." Arcee told her partner.

"Humungou-what?"

Diamondhead tapped on the dial to transform.

"Humungousaur!" The Vaxasaurian grew to his full size of sixty feet.

"Woah!" This new autobot was in awe. Humungousaur was about to crush this guy but Optimus stopped him.

"Thank you fellow autobot, your valor is to be commended. However, I would advise you not to get on Arcee's bad side."

"I don't believe it! You're Optimus Prime! He's Optimus Prime!"

"We know."

"Yes yes."

"It's not that big of a deal."

"What is your name soldier?"

"Smokescreen, sir." The autobot said. He saluted Optimus.

"Welcome to earth Smokescreen."

"It's an honor to be here, especially with you." Smokescreen said as he shook Optimus' hand.

"Now what?" Ratchet asked. "It's not like we can bring him back to base."

"Wouldn't be the first time an ally turned out to be a plant."

"Ahem." Humungousaur coughed. He tapped the dial again. "Swampfire!" But he wasn't swampfire, he was a new alien. It too was plant based, but this one had six fin like legs and a collar that resembled a venus fly trap. "Far out!" This new alien said like a 60s hippie. "Um, don't get so uptight, I'm a plant."

"No, not that kind of plant."

Optimus noticed the insignia on Smokescreen shoulder. It was an autobot emblem with some line through it. "I see you received your training from Cybertron's Elite Guard."

"True enough, though it was little more than a boot camp by the time I joined, never even go a proper graduation ceremony."

"There was a war going on." Arcee exhaled in frustration. "Jack, mind if I come on that fishing trip you and the others are going on?" She asked. "I don't want to be forced to remove bits of my fist from his head, by the what're you gonna call this alien?"

"No problemo dudette." In a flash of red light, Jack was in place of the new alien form. "And I think I'll call that one Wildvine. And what're you complaining about? I didn't want the Omnitrix and do you see me complaining?"

"Hey fleshie, all I ever wanted to do was be a soldier and serve the Autobot cause, but what I got was security detail at Iacon."

"The hall of records of all places? Optimus, do you not find this highly suspicious." Ratchet stated the obvious.

"Smokescreen, what was your assignment inside the hall?"

"Guarding Alpha Trion in what turned out to be the final days of the war."

"You served under the master archivist?"

"Eh, wasn't too thrilled to be watching the back of an old 'bot instead of kicking 'con tailpipe." He saw that the other autobots and Jack didn't like the way he stated his opinion of the task. "But make no mistake, the big A tuned out to be a great teacher, and a true friend. I mean, he was the one who petitioned Halogen and the high council to make you a prime."

Optimus thought about what Smokescreen said for a moment.

"Rafael, activate the ground bridge."

"That's it? That's all you need to hear before inviting him to the party?" Arcee couldn't believe how simple that was.

"If my former mentor shared this information, it is because he considered Smokescreen a trusted ally."

"Cortical psychic patch." Jack said whilst fake coughing.

Later, Autobot outpost Omega-1...

"We haven't had somebody new around here since wheeljack!" Miko said as she ran up the stairs to the elevated platform. "What's your story Smoke? Where'd you come from? How'd you get here? How many blasters are you packing?"

"So these are the life forms we're supposed to protect? Are they all like this?"

"Fortunately not but I too share Miko's fascination with how you came to arrive on Earth."

"In a Decepticon escape pod." Arcee still didn't like this guy.

"Still got trust issues, huh? Tough crowd. The main thrust of combat operations was at least twenty clicks from the Hall of Records, so things had been pretty quiet. But the situation went downhill fast. The Cons launched a massive surge that wiped out the last line of defenses surrounding Iacon. I was the only thing left to them back, and, let me tell you, I was pumped.

I mean, this was my chance to see real action for the first time to prove myself. Until everything went black. Cons took me prisoner and dumped me onto a transport ship. But I managed to give a guard the slip and hopped in an escape pod. Apparently, it was a long-distance pod, 'cause it knocked me into stasis. Next thing I knew, I'm hitting solid ground hard.

"The Decepticon warship must have picked up pod's beacon and guided it to Earth." Ratchet stated.

"Which would explain Smokescreen's welcoming committee. Bet those Cons were disappointed not to find one of their own inside."

"Smokescreen, do you know of Alpha Trion's fate, after the fall of Iacon?" Optimus asked.

"I wish I did. But that was the last I ever saw of him." Smokescreen moped. Optimus had a look of sadness on his face. "That's it, my life story."

"Not exactly the glory I envisioned for myself, until now."

"Wow, that was almost insulting how quickly he went from depressed to excited." Jack said under his breath.

"Being here with Optimus Prime I knew I was destined for great things. I mean, now that you have help, how hard could it be to end this war?" The sound of groaning, gasping, and scraping was heard.

"Take a good look, Newbie." Bulkhead showed the guy that it wasn't always easy. "This is how hard."

Smokescreen when wide eyed for a moment before Optimus drew his attention away from Bulkhead and his condition.

"Smokescreen, I would suggest that you take some time to become acclimated to your new surroundings." Optimus made an attempt to defuse the tension. "A tour of the base would be an excellent start."

"Sure thing!" Miko spoke up. She then heard her bff's dissatisfaction. "I mean Jack here offers a very informative tour."

At the Harbinger...

Starscream was using the computers of the crashed Decepticon warship to search the internet.

"This is what the humans call 'the information superhighway'?" Starscream groaned. On a side note, that seems like a Vilgax line. "A trillion gigabytes of data none of it's useful!" He passed by multiple images, some would catch your eye. One was of a gigantic red, blue, pink, and yellow robot with a T-rex head on its shoulder, another was of Heatblast fighting Vilgax, another was of a crude drawing of Chromastone, and one was the animation of the tap dancing monkey. "Though some oddly engrossing." Starscream chuckled. "What is this? Ah." There was a picture of red crystals that were at a dig site. He laughed as he knew what it was. "Ignorant life-forms have no idea what they've uncovered. Red Energon." Starscream placed his clawed hand on the screen. "If I can possess its power, not only will I be stronger but also faster. Significantly faster."

Back at Autobot outpost Omega-1...

Jack was giving Smokescreen a tour of the base. The two were walking down a hall with multiple garage doors."

"Phase shifter, Polarity gauntlet, spark extractor, immobilizer. This is where we store the Cybertronian relics we found buried on Earth."

"And talk about a small universe 'cause most of them came from the-" Jack was interrupted by Smokescreen as he looked in the room with the Phase Shifter.

"The Iacon hall of records. I remember these." He walked a bit further down the hall to see where Airachnid who was trapped in the stasis pod was. "Whoa. What kind of relic is she?"

"Who?" Jack turned into Stinkfly to get a better view. "Oh her, she's the kind you don't wanna mess with, unless you can fight her off."

"So you and her have a history."

"You could say that. Although, I'd rather not talk about it."

"So it's a don't ask, don't tell situation?" Smokescreen asked as he and Stinkfly continued down the hall.

Back in the main room...

"If you wanted to replace me, you should have called Wheeljack." Bulkhead sat against the wall with his arms crossed. "I could have lived with that."

"No one is replacing you, Bulkhead." Arcee said. "For one thing, Smokescreen's too green."

"Well, Bulk's as green as they get!" Miko exclaimed. "Well, Swampfire is a close second."

"What Arcee means is Smokescreen still has a great deal to learn."

"And once you got him trained, then what, huh? He's in. I'm a doorstop."

"Bulkhead, your place with us is not in jeopardy, but there is no dispute that we have long required additional firepower." Optimus assured the ex-wrecker "It is essential that our team learns to work with our new recruit, not against him."

"Better hope the hotshot's blasters are as big as his mouth." Bulkhead thought of the words that to the injured bot's audio receptors, sounded like insults. "'How hard can it be?'"

"Hey, everyone. Check this out." Raf placed the same image Starscream was looking at earlier.

"Don't tell me it's another Bumblebee sight- oh my."

Optimus recognized the substance. "Red Energon."

"Here? On Earth?"

"What's Red Energon?" Raf was curious.

"An extremely rare and volatile form of Energon." On a side note, I've decided to leave this misspelling of Energon for your potential amusement. Energellum. "Refined into fuel, it provides the power of hyperspeed."

"We must have Agent Fowler clear the dig site of all human presence as it is unlikely we are the only ones who have discovered its location." Optimus said.

"Now you're talking." Smokescreen was pumped up. "Let's scramble up some Cons' circuits."

"Given your limited field experience, I believe further training is required before you are battle-ready."

"Optimus, with all due respect-"

"Furthermore, we Autobots live on this planet as robots in disguise. You will need to obtain an Earth-based vehicle mode."

"In order to maintain a low profile, if that's possible for you."

"If you're talking wheels, bring 'em on!"

At the dig site...

"The Red Energon is mine, humans!" Starscream leaped out of a ground bridge vortex. "For you are powerless in the face of the mighty Star-" He saw that there was no energon, only a bunch of knights with metal detectors. "What? Where is it?"

"We were just about to ask you the same question, Decepticon." One of the knights said. He had a slight english accent.

"Who are you?"

"We are the Forever Knights, and we seek this 'Red Energon' as you called it to fuel our efforts."

"Sire," a brown haired boy who seemed to be about fourteen said to one of the knights. "would it not be wise to forge a brief alliance with this Cybertronian so that when we obtain what we seek, we can it?"

"Hmm, the child has an interesting idea, Sir, um, what's your name?"

"Tyler, Sir Tyler."

"Sir Tyler, would it be at all possible to form an alliance between the two of us so that we might both benefit?"

"Very well." Sir Tyler spoke. "Knights, to battle!"

Somewhere outside of Alamo, Nevada...

Jack and Smokescreen were on top of a mesa, looking for an alt mode for the latter of the two.

They saw a Honda Civic pass by. "Nope."

Jack saw an old pick up truck pass by."How about that one?"

"Eh, it's more Ratchet's speed, don't you think?"

"Cement truck?"

"Yeah, if I were a Constructicon."

"Seriously, this is the best your planet has to offer?" Smokescreen asked.

"No, but this is Alamo."

"I feel for you." Smokescreen saw a green muscle car. "What about that one." He pointed at it.

"That one? Uh, I'd advise against that."

"Why? Got any problems with it?"

"That's Kevin's, and he doesn't like anyone messing with his car."

"Must be quite the jerk."

"No, he's actually pretty cool, he's just a bit on the angry side."

Bellwood; Night...

Arcee, Bumblebee, and Optimus drove out of a ground bridge. They transformed and had their weapons deployed as they walked through the shipping yard. The saw that the Red Energon was being stored in a crate that for some reason was still grasped by the crane.

"Fowler couldn't have the crane operator lower the thing?" Arcee was just as confused as I am.

"The humans must have been preparing to transfer the meteor to a cargo ship when they received his evacuation order.

"Run along home, Autobots." Starscream appeared out of nowhere. "That Red Energon belongs to myself and my temporary allies." He place on the Apex Armor and in a few seconds was in his armored form. "And we are more than willing to fight for it." Starscream assumed a battle stance.

"Secure the Red Energon and have Ratchet bridge it back to base." Optimus deloyed his face mask and prepared to fight Starscream. Arcee and Bumblebee ran to the crane tower.

"Hold on, allies, what allies?" Arcee asked.

A red blast of energy hit the ground in front Arcee. She was shot at by a Forever Knight that wielded a weapon called a laser lance.

"Return to your hovels Autobot scum." The Forever Knight said.

"Scrap." Arcee realized that the knight was not alone as twenty of them aimed at her and Bumblebee.

Optimus shot at Starscream as he advanced.

"Don't tell me you've already forgotten our last encounter, Prime." Starscream had tossed Optimus into the stacked shipping crates.

"Bee, get the Red Energon, I'll deal with these guys." Arcee fired at the Forever Knights as Bumblebee started to climb up the tower.

"Destroy that bug!" Starscream pointed at the climbing Bumblebee.

A knight stood on top of the stacked crates and had a blaster that was placed on his shoulder.

"Not so fast Forever Knights!" A human male shouted.

"Huh?" Everyone paused what they were doing and turned their attention to the source of the noise.

"Who are you?" One of the forever Knights shined a flashlight on the new arrival to show him to be a human teen about Jack's age that had brown hair and green eyes and wore a white jacket with a red 10 on both sides, a green t-shirt under it, and brown pants. He had on a Buckle that was metallic blue and chrome silver.

"I am the famous Ben Tennyson!" The boy said.

"Never heard of you." Starscream deadpanned.

"Wait, aren't you Jack's cou-oh no." Arcee realized who this was.

"Now, evil hater alien and For Never Knights, time for you to feel ten types of pain!"

"Is it wrong to find this funny?" One of the Forever Knights asked the one next to him.

The knight shrugged. "How do you plan on fighting us? We outnumber and outgun you."

"We'll see about that." Ben placed what looked like a toy motorcycle in his belt buckle. "Let's... transform!"

"Signal Bike! Rider! Mach!" A loop of music was played. Ben gained the armor of a being that in another Universe was known as Kamen Rider Mach.

Everyone was completely speechless.

"Tracking... terminating, all done at mach speed. Masked Rider, Mach!"

"This is turning out to be a very weird day." Arcee turned her head to face someone who wasn't there. "And that's saying a lot coming from me."

This 'Mach' leaped off of the container he stood on to fight the forever knights using a gun that looked like the front section of a motorcycle to do so.

Autobot Outpost Omega-1...

"Optimus, is something wrong?" Ratchet asked as Optimus' voice came over the comm system.

"Starscream has come for the Red Energon, and he has brought along assistance from a group called the Forever Knights. And I fear they will not be deterred in their quest."

"Starscream? I heard stories about that stiletto-heeled creep back on Cybertron." Smokescreen wanted to join the fight. "Send me in, Doc."

"When Optimus requires backup, he will ask for it."

"Aw, come on." Smokescreen was more than a bit disappointed. "I got my V-mode and everything, I'm souped up and ready to roll!"

"Eh! Eh! Eh! What part of 'further training' did you not understand?" Ratchet was about to crush the nearest inanimate object.

"Ratchet, open a ground bridge." Optimus requested.

"Alright! Time to roll-."

"And send Jack to our location." Optimus added.

"Better luck next time. But right now, it's hero time!" Jack selected his newest alien. "Wildvine! Or Fast Track, Fast Track is good."

At the shipping yard...

Bumblebee was climbing up the tower while Arcee, Optimus, and Mach fought off the Forever Knights.

"Signal Bike! Signal Exchange: Kikeren!" The 'wheel' that was on Mach's right shoulder changed into a warning sign with a bullet that had an exlamation point over head. He fired at the knights, careful not the kill them, just injure them.

A ground bridge opened. Fast Track ran out of it. He ran up the tower with everyone failing to notice him.

Starscream climbed up after Bumblebee. "The higher you climb, the harder you fall." He laughed as Bumblebee shot at him. Autobots such slow learners.

"At least they learn!" Fast Track shouted.

"What? A Citrakayah? Arcee, I think Cliffjumper would be against having a cat."

"Why you-! Jack! Get him!" Arcee shouted as she tossed one of the Forever Knights into the bay.

"Got it!" Fast Track jumped and delivered a sidekick to try to knock Starscream down, but that only resulted in a hurt foot. Starscream just tossed him to the ground. Before he landed he transformed again. "Goop!" When Goop landed, he went splat, but quickly reformed into a humanoid shape. He hardened his fist and ran up and punched a Knight, denting his face plate and making him fall unconscious.

"Nice moves cuz." Mach said. "But try this one on for size!" Mach fired up in the air. A portal opened and an entity that resembled a bullet dropped out of it.

"Bwah ha ha ha!" Three Forever Knights laughed at what they saw. It approached them and after taking a few steps grew to the size of the vehicle known as the Marauder. It had teeth like a shark. It grabbed the three knights with its jaws and shook them around a bit. The Bullet Beast tossed them into the bay, to this day, the fates of those three knights remain unknown. (On a side note, if you ever wanted to see something that makes you both worry and not care about your general surroundings, take a look at the Top Gear Marauder segment.)

"Cool. But let's see if you can beat..." Goop tapped the dial again. "Big Chill!" Big Chill exhaled, freezing several of the knights in chunks of Ice.

One of the Forever Knights fired a grappling hook at the crate the Red Energon was in.

"Oh no you don't!" Ben jumped and used the 'wheel' that was on the front of his gun to cut the cable that the Forever Knight was pulling on. Big Chill side kicked that Knight, his wings splayed out to allow him to be more flexible.

Back at base...

"Optimus, what is your status?" Ratchet tried to reach Optimus. All he got was static.

"Ratchet, they need me. I can do this." Bulkhead was just a few steps away from begging.

"Arcee? Bumblebee?" Again, only static.

"Did you hear what I said?"

Ratchet turned around to face Bulkhead. "I heard, and I'm ignoring you." Ratchet said as he approached the injured bot. "This may be your opportunity after all, Smokescre- Where is Smokescreen?" He looked around and couldn't find him. Ratchet went down the hall and found him in the relic storage area.

"That's the one." Smokescreen said with a tone of voice that sounded less than friendly. He had just opened the chamber that was to the storage area for the Phase Shifter.

"You, there! What in the name of the Allspark do you think you're doing?" Ratchet questioned.

Back at the docks...

Bumblebee was walking backwards and firing at Starscream, again, to effect. Starscream eventually got to the point where he was within striking distance of the autobot. He swung his fist, but Bumblebee dodged his blow and caused Starscream to stumble. Bumblebee tried to reach for the crate but found that it was out of reach.

"Time to unload some more deadweight." Starscream said as he reached for Bumblebee. Bumblebee glanced up to see Optimus climbing up another crane.

Optimus leaped off it, using both his own strength and the acceleration of the fall to deliver a punch that caused Starscream to lose his balance and fall off. He didn't hit the ground as he managed to grab onto the crated the Red Energon was in. He tried to grab the energon, but when he did, only half of it broke of. Starscream fell to the ground. When the energon landed, one of the knights used a pickaxe to hack off half of the chunk that fell.

"We have what we came for!" That knight announced. The rest of the Forever Knights heard this and decided that now would be a good time to cut their losses and head home. "Forever Knights, fall back!" The knights started to leave the area.

"No!" The armor clad decepticon screamed as he fell. Optimus pulled up the crate by tugging on the cable. Starscream grabbed the bottom of the crane. "Watch your step, Autobots!" He evilly laughed as he started to tip over the crane. "Huh?" He saw a ground bridge open. Out of it drove a white racecar with blue trim around the wheels. On the doors was the number 38.

"Apparently, no one defined 'low profile' for him." Arcee said as she kicked one of the knights in the air and punched him into a contained.

"So, the Autobots have a new recruit."

"And you must be Starscream. I thought you'd be taller."

"That's Starscream? I thought that we were fighting Vilgax, 'cause the Starscream I've heard about and seen is more yellow then Bumblebee." Big Chill taunted.

"This will not end well."

"Aw, you really do like me." Smokescreen said when he heard Arcee's concern.

"I was talking about Jack. He can scrap you for all I care."

"Smokescreen, stand down." Optimus ordered. "You are no match for Starscream's Apex armor."

"Any last words, Smokescreen?"

"Just four, kiss your armor goodbye." He activated the Phase shifter before running at Starscream. He jumped and kicked the flightless seeker out of the Apex Armo- wait how is that possible? We learn in a later episode that the feet of whoever uses the phase shifter are solid, preventing you from falling through the ground.

"A Phase shifter?" Starscream was as confused as I am,

"Now, that was a plan!" Smokescreen triumphantly shouted.

Arcee face palmed.

"No that was dumb luck." The voice of Upgrade, now coming from the Apex Armor said. The armor turned black with the blue circuit pattern. The visor had a blue circle on it. "This is a plan." The Omnitrix timed out. Leaving Jack holding the collapsed form of the Apex Armor in his hands. "Make that was, this was a plan."

Starscream saw what was left of the Red Energon. He also saw that the forever knights were gone.

"You and Arcee's partner aren't the only ones who are sporting a fancy wrist-mounted device. He held out his arm and fired a missile at the two autobots that were on the crane. "Think fast!"

"No!" Smokescreen and Jack shouted. The crane blew up. The four good guys thought that Optimus and Bumblebee perished in the crash, but after the debris fell and the smoke cleared, they saw that they were alright. But Starscream had gotten away with what was left of the red Energon."

Autobot base...

Ben, Jack, Miko, Raf, and the Autobots were listening to Smokescreen's explanation behind what he did.

"Told you I just needed to borrow it for a while." He said. "Doc here thought I was trying to steal your relics."

Ratchet took the phase shifter out of Smokescreen's hand. "Only until you explained your plan, which I then sanctioned. It's called protocol."

"Ratchet is correct. Standard procedure must be observed by every member of this team." Optimus stated. "Even the human ones." Smokescreen hung his head in shame. "However, I believe we must also commend Smokescreen." Optimus placed his hand on the newest bot's shoulder in a way that showed commendation. You have proven to be a quick study by choosing to place strategy above bravado."

"There is gonna be no living with him now." Arcee said.

"You got that right." Jack replied.

"While this may lack the pageantry of a proper elite guard ceremony, I wish to welcome you to team Prime."

Bulkhead entered the room via the hallway that led to the medical bay. "The Newbie did all right." He admitted.

"Don't worry, Bulk. He's got nothing on you." Miko ran up to try to ease her BFF's stress. But Bulkhead turned around and headed back to the Medical bay. Seriously, once we get that leg of yours back in shape, old Smokey's gonna learn real quick who the top wrecking ball is run here." Miko had a look of sadness on her face. "Bulkhead?"

"Um, could somebody please send me back to bellwood so that I can get home?" Ben asked.

"Very well Benjamin." Optimus said, but why not stay for a while longer?"

"Nope! Nope! Nope! Send him home right now." Jack shouted. "I don't want to have a migraine before our fishing trip tomorrow."

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. And there's Smokescreen, a character, who despite having him shake up the status quo, his purpose down the line makes me scratch my head, I might tell you why later when we get closer to the finale. And I had him hit on Arcee at various point, not because they're gonna hook up, no, it's because I have an interesting idea for a duel, and it's gonna be between him and the only dinobot from Age of Extinction whose design I liked.


	15. A Fisherman's Tale

Grasshopper lake, nighttime...

"Cannonball!" Jack shouted as he jumped in the lake. Arcee poked her head out from under the water.

"Aw man I missed it."

"Jack, it's getting late." Miko said as she stood at the end of the dock. "Wait. Arcee can swim?"

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?"

"Miko, I can't believe you don't wanna go for a swim." Jack said.

"Normally I would, but who knows what slimy, nasty things are swimming around down there?"

"What's the point in camping by a lake if you're afraid to get wet?" Arcee splashed Miko.

"Knock it off you two!" She shouted. Miko headed back to the Rust Bucket.

Jack whispered something to Arcee. He smiled deviously.

"Hey-" Jack started bobbing up and down. "What's happen-" Jack went under the water.

"Very funny Jack. I'm not falling for it."

"I think he's in trouble." Arcee dove down after him.

Miko ran to the edge of the dock. She shined her flashlight on a section of the water that had bubbles coming from it.

"Jack? Arcee?" Miko was getting scared.

A huge creature that was vaguely humanoid in shape came out of the water, it had six large fins, four blue eyes, horns, and was covered with seaweed. Miko screamed when she saw it and dropped her flashlight as she stumbled back, revealing the 'monster' to be nothing more than Jack as Big Chill holding onto Arcee's head.

"Jack! Arcee!"

"You should've seen the look on your face."

"I know right? Priceless."

"You two are so in trouble when I tell Mrs Darby." Miko said as she stormed off.

"I can't believe she fell for it."

"Yeah. A monster in the lake. How dumb can you be?" Big Chill said. He and Arcee heard bubbling coming from behind them.

A gigantic creature emerged from the water, it looked like some kind of dinosaur with two tentacles coming out from the sides of it's mouth. One of its tentacles grabbed Arcee and tossed her a good distance across the lake. Big Chill flew as fast as he could to reach her, but the creature got to her first and pulled the autobot under. Arcee saw one of the lake monster's eyes, which were blue and had a white pupil. Arcee broke free of its grasp and swam back to the shore. Big Chill was back at the shore waiting for Arcee.

Arcee, still in her robot form, and Jack, now back to his human state were peering into the Rust Bucket. Raf, June, and Miko were already in bed.

"Arcee and I were just attacked, by a giant lake monster!" Jack shouted.

"Hello, current events, you already got me with that one." Miko said after throwing a pillow at Jack.

"But we're not kidding." Arcee stated. "It was huge and had blue eyes!"

"Come on you two lovebirds, joke's over. Get some sleep you two. We have an early day tomorrow for our fishing trip." June said.

The following morning...

"No really! It was humongous with these blue glowing eyes!" Arcee shouted as she and the others walked down a dock. Arcee had her ID mask on so she was in her Sadie guise.

"I'm sure it was just some kinda big fish, that's all." June assured Arcee.

"Yeah, so give the mega fish story a rest, will ya captain 'Cee?" Miko sarcastically said.

"Hey, Miko, you hungry?" Jack said. His back was turned to her.

"Yeah. I didn't get a chance to eat-" Jack held a bucket of worms in front of her. "Ew gross! What's with the bucket of creepy crawlies?"

"Bait." June deadpanned.

"Yeah, well I think I'm gonna pass on the fishing thing. I'll stay here and catch some sun instead." Miko walked off.

"Okay, but you don't know what you're missing." June turned to a man on the boat who had grey hair who wore a red cap, a tan button up shirt, and murky green pants. "Captain Shaw?"

"Who wants to know?" The man asked.

"I'm June Darby, and this is my son Jack and his friends Raf and Sadie. We chartered your boat today for a fishing trip."

"Well, what're ya waitin' for? An engraved invitation? I ain't got all day ya know."

They got aboard his boat before it headed out.

Later...

Captain Shaw's boat was far from the docks, in an area of the lake where there were only a few cabins here and there.

June tried to start a conversation with the less than friendly looking man. "Anything interesting to catch out there today?"

"More than you could imagine madame." Shaw replied. He noticed that Jack and Sadie/Arcee had their heads over the side of the boat. "Looks like your boy and his lady friend are using their breakfast as chum." He commented.

"Jack, Sadie, you two feeling okay?" She asked.

"Yeah, we're alright Mrs Darby. We're just keeping an eye out for the lake monster." Sadie replied.

"That things not taking us by surprise this time." Jack said.

Raf, who was at the bow of the boat, decided to play a prank. "There it is!" He shouted.

"Where?" Sadie and Jack ran to where Raf was and looked where he was pointing, only to find the limb of a tree that was covered in moss and had a styrofoam cooler caught in it. "Sorry, my bad."

"Not funny Raf." Jack glared at Raf. "That's something Miko would pull."

"Now calm down you two. This is a fishing trip, not a monster hunt." June commented. "Lord knows we go on enough of those already." She said that last part under her breath."

"It's called the Kraken." Shaw spoke up. "Though no one knows why." No seriously, why is it called that? The Kraken is said to resemble a giant squid.

"Whoa, you know about it?" Sadie asked.

"It's my business to know about it." He handed Jack a photo of what resemble that famous picture of the Loch Ness monster. He and Sadie looked at it with great interest. "I've been on its tail for years. Folks say my rudder's not right?"

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" June sarcastically asked.

"Sighting go back hundreds of years on this very lake. Some say it's a myth, not me." He sounded serious, which he was, you see, this is an offshoot of the Ben 10 universe, where not only do aliens and magic exist, cryptids are real as well. "I could take you to a spot where I personally laid eyes upon the beast, that is, if you got the stomach for some real adventure." His eyes went wide in excitement.

Arcee cracked her neck and said the following two words. "Bring it."

Jack looked at his mom with a mile wide grin on his face.

"I guess so." June said.

"Alright!"

"Captain Shaw, what do all these machines do?" Raf asked when he saw Shaw's setup.

"Sonar, hi def video setup, ultrasound, I've got it all."

"And they're for?"

"For tracking The Kraken of course. And I will find it. Mark my words." He said with not a single hint of humor in his voice. "It can't hide forever."

June saw that Jack and Arcee were both smiling at a mile a minute. She pulled them aside to speak with them.

"Jack, Arcee, I don't want you to put too much stock into what Captain Shaw says." She cautioned. "I don't think he has both oars in the water if you know what I mean."

"Of coarse his oars aren't in the water, this is a motor boat."

"It's an expression. It means that he might be halved crazed."

"But why would you think that? Is it because he saw the Kraken too?" Sadie asked.

Later...

After at least another half hour of maneuvering the boat, Captain Shaw came to a barrier that read do not enter.

"Do not enter? What in the world is going on?!"

"Looks official. Maybe we should turn-"

"Nonsense. This be my lake. And I'll go where ever I so-" Captain Shaw was interrupted by a man who was on a much more high tech boat.

"Fishing boat. Stop where you are." The man, who had dark red hair, tan skin, and a well trimmed beard said. He was on a boat that had the acronym FOF. "I am Jonah Melville, the founder of friends of fish. We've closed this section of the lake for an environmental study."

"Suppose you make me fish hugger." Shaw was frustrated. He was shaking his fist at Jonah.

June, not wanting anyone, potentially half crazed fishermen included, to cause trouble, spoke up. "Well, sense I chartered your boat for the day, I believe I'm in charge. Isn't that right captain?"

Shaw mumbled as he went to the wheelhouse.

"But what about The Kraken?" Jack asked. Jonah laughed at him.

"The Kraken? Not that old fish story. Look, I'm a marine biologist, and anyone who says they've seen a monster in the lake is casting without a hook." Jack and Sadie glared at him.

Later, Shaw was following Jonah's boat when he detected something. "The sonar." Shaw's eyes went wide as saucers. "We found something." A dorsal fin could be seen poking out of the water.

"Or something found us." Raf mumbled in panic as he realized that Jack and Arcee weren't crazy. "Look!" Raf pointed at the dorsal fin.

"The Kraken." The dorsal fin went under the water as a massive black shape went under the boat, shaking it in its wake. "It's heading for the docks!"

"Miko!" Jack and Raf shouted.

At the docks, Miko was sitting at the edge of them. She was relaxing.

"Ah, finally a little sun." Miko was unaware of the creature that was heading her way. "And with Jack nowhere in site, finally a moment with nothing otherworldly."

She saw Shaw's fishing boat and heard the horn honk.

"How many times do they think I'm gonna fall for this?" As if on cue, the creature that attacked Arcee and Jack last night rose out of the water. It was about fifty feet tall, maybe more as part of it was still submerged. The scales on its back and the tops of it's arms were dark blue while the scales on its underside were greenish grey. The two tentacles that were on its head were brownish grey.

The creature slammed down on the dock, flinging Miko and about a dozen other people into the lake.

"That's not Jack." Miko realized.

Captain Shaw was looking at the beast through a pair of binoculars. "I told you! The Kraken is real!"

"Sail now, gloat later." June said. Shaw went the wheelhouse. June whispered to Jack: "Someone's gotta rescue those people."

Jack jumped overboard and when he was in the water he activated the Omnitrix prepared to transform.

"Ripjaws to the rescue!" Jack dove under and transformed. A flash of blue light was seen as Jack became, yet again, the wrong alien. "Hey, I said Ripjaws, not XLR8!" XLR8 voiced his disapproval. He turned his head to see the people who were thrown into the water swimming away from The Kraken. "Here goes nothing." He lower his visor and started running in the direction of the fleeing people. He at first was only treading water, but he eventually found that he could run on it, but that was a bit difficult.

The Kraken was about to grab Miko with its jaws that were filled with greenish yellow teeth. XLR8 grabbed Miko before that could happen. He ran to the shore and placed her on a sand dune.

"You okay?" He asked. Miko coughed a bit before responding.

"Yeah, thanks for the save." XLR8 sped off, accidently getting sand all over Miko.

The Kraken was about to grab some more people, but XLR8 managed to grab them and get them on the beach.

"Get us out of here!" Jonah shouted as one of the members of his crew started the engine of the boat. They started to leave the area.

The Kraken to notice of this and tossed a boat that it had in its grasp and dove back under and swam after them.

XLR8 was in hot pursuit.

Jonah and his associate thought they were safe, but The Kraken rose out of the water in front of the bow of their boat, not the aft, which is where they were looking.

The Kraken roared. It then slammed its clawed hand down near the boat, creating a wave that sent it back about twenty yards. The boat shook as it was forcibly moved, forcing her crew to hang on for dear life. The Kraken approached them. It would've reached the boat if not for XLR8 running around in a circle to create a vortex that sorta scare the creature. The Kraken dove into the water, showing that its tail had a fin on it, much like that of a fish.

XLR8 stopped running and did a backflip, landing on the deck of the boat next to Jonah.

The Kraken rose up out of the water and used its tree trunk sized tentacles to rip off a tarp to reveal a crate that the words cannery on it. It grabbed on to the crate and dragged it to the water.

Jonah ran up and grabbed onto the crate and engaged in a game of tug of war with The Kraken. But that ended as one would expect. XLR8 ran up and grabbed onto one of the tentacle and rapidly ran his feet back and forth, getting dust in The Kraken's eyes, causing it to let go of the crate. It would've slammed down the aft of the boat, it not for XLR8 sliding under the bottom of its head and kicking its throat rapidly. That caused it to give up and dive into the water.

"Thanks for the hand. And the feet." Jonah thanked XLR8.

"Geeze." XLR8 raised his visor. "What's so important in that crate that you'd risk your life for it?"

"Our lunch."

"You almost got munched over a few sandwiches?" XLR8 couldn't believe what her heard, but then again, lunch is awesome. The Kraken reached out of the water with one of its tentacles and grabbed the top of the crate pulling it into the water. XLR8 lowered his visor and was about to head off when he heard the timeout beeping. "Uh oh. Sorry, gotta run." He jumped in the water and ran towards Captain Shaw's boat. "Almost there." The beeping became more rapid. "It think I'm gonna-" XLR8 went back to being Jack, who due to the speed of XLR8, skipped on the surface of the water a couple of times before coming to a stop about ten feet from the boat.

"Man overboard! Shaw! Jack's overboard. Bring the boat around." June shouted.

Shaw, was currently trying to shoot at the Kraken with a harpoon launcher that was on the deck. He begrudgingly did as June asked. "Next time you're in my sights, you won't be so lucky."

Later...

A lot of the campers who were at the lake were leaving. Jack was drying off by a fire while Arcee and Miko finished packing up.

"That was the same thing that tried to munch us last night." Jack said. "Captain Shaw, Arcee, and I were right."

"Just because he was right about the Kraken, doesn't mean I was wrong about him." June said. "I want you and Arcee to stay away from that guy. He's trouble."

"You're just being stubborn and don't wanna check it out."

"Jack, this isn't my area of expertise."

"Yeah, what could a nurse do against a lake monster?" Miko asked. Jack, Arcee, and Raf looked at her with looks that showed that they knew something that she didn't. "Um, what aren't you guys telling me."

"June used to be this alien fighter called a plumber who dealt with stuff like this all the time." Arcee stated.

"Really? That's awesome!" Miko was about to ask June a bunch of questions, but she didn't when she saw a look of frustration of June's face.

"But the Kraken, it's not an alien, it's a cryptid. And that's not what the plumbers dealt with. So we should head out and let the experts like those friends of fish guys handle it. We do have to make it to Florida to meet up with my dad."

"Experts? Who better to bag a lake monster than the guy with the monster buster on his wrist?" Miko asked.

"I'm afraid this'll have to be the one that got away." June said.

"Low down, no good fish kissers!" Captain Shaw shouted as he walked by the campsite.

"What seems to be the matter captain?" Raf asked.

"The nerve of those enviro-punks! They shut down the entire lake. Nobody tells me where to sail, and nobody's gonna keep me from reeling in the catch of the century. Nobody. Nothing on this earth will stand in my way."

Later at night...

Captain Shaw headed out to the lake on his boat under the light of a full moon.

Back in the rust bucket...

Miko was knocking on the door to the bathroom.

"Come on Jack! What? Did you die in there?"

June opened the door to find that Jack wasn't in there.

Back on Shaw's boat...

Shaw heard rustling. He picked up an oar and approached the tarp.

"Hey, no stowaways on my boat, even if you are a filthy rat." He used the oar to lift up the tarp to find Jack hiding under it.

"Um, first mate Darby reporting for duty." Jack sheepishly spoke while waving. "Sir."

Shaw didn't like this situation. But he had to deal with it.

"Well, seeing as you're here Mr Darby, you might as well be caught up to speed."

"Okay. So, where is the Kraken?"

"She's probably been chased pretty deep by our fishy friends. There's only one way to flush her out." He placed on the dive mask that completed his scuba gear. "You gotta use a bit of live bait."

"Maybe I should go with you, just in case-"

"No need lad, I've got my dive buddy right here." He showed Jack the harpoon gun he had. "Wish me luck." He sat on the edge of the boat and fell in, heading under the water.

"Jack saw a second set of scuba gear and decided to go down with him."

Under the water, Shaw passed by a school of fish. Something passed in front of him, causing a bit of a scare, but that passed when it turned out that it was merely a piece of kelp.

He approached a sunken ship that had a light orange sphere that had red veins all over it. He turned around and saw something approach him. He fired his harpoon gun at the shape. The harpoon was avoided and Shaw saw that it was only Jack.

Jack looked at the egg as Shaw headed to the surface. "Wow, an egg." Jack said, but nobody but himself heard it. "Wait. In the crate, this was in it?"

When Shaw surfaced, he found an armed speedboat next to his fishing vessel. He climbed up the ladder of the boat, but when he got halfway up he was pulled up by a guy wearing a grey wetsuit.

"Don't you know night diving is dangerous old timer?" The man in grey asked. "Unless of course, you went with a friend."

"I work alone. I ain't got no friends."

"And I with a sparkling personality like yours I can't see why?"

"I haven't done anything wrong. And I haven't got anything worth stealing either!" Two other guys who wore wetsuits that were identical to the one worn by the first guy had grabbed Shaw. The first guy approached Shaw. "Ah, but you have us all wrong. All we want is a little commodity called information. Like what did you see down there?"

"Nothing. Same as always." Shaw was punched out by the guy who removed his black dive mask to reveal that it was Jonah Melville.

"Well, I have to be sure."

Jack, who had recently surfaced saw this and tried to transform, but found that the Omnitrix was still in the red.

"Come on, work. Henshin!" Jack tried to speed up the recharge process.

"Take Ahab here with us." Jonah ordered. The other two guys took Shaw onto their boat. "Find out if he knows anything back at the cannery. We'll come back here later with a mini sub to snag the rest of the eggs." Jonah pressed some buttons on a device that he threw in the water. That was a tracking beacon. "In the meantime," Jonah pulled a lever on a xbox sized device and threw it into Shaw's boat. "I think his boat just got lost at sea."

Jonah and his lackeys got away. Jack dove under the water as the boat exploded and sank.

He would've been crushed by the majority of the hull, if not for something plowing through it, destroying it. Jack looked to see that it was the Kraken that destroyed the hull of the sinking boat. What he was unsure of was why it did it. Was she trying to save Jack or was it just an happy accident. Jack went with the latter. He went up to the surface and saw that the Omnitrix had recharged. He activated it to find an alien that he hadn't used before. He pressed down and was turned into...

"Jetray!" Jack had turned into a red, humanoid mantaray that had a yellow membrane acting as his wings.

Jetray darted out of the water and flew at the boat.

Jonah and his man saw what was following them.

"Is that a bird?" The one who was driving the boat asked.

"Nah, looks like a plane."

"It's a, fish?" Jonah saw Jetray approach them. "Man the guns!"

"Give it up! You guys are gonna get canned." Jetray was being shot at, but he managed to avoid their bullets. He shot blue laser beams out of his eyes, and used them to destroy the weapons that Jonah's men were using.

In the boat's wheelhouse, Jonah pressed flipped some switches that caused depth charges to be deployed.

They went off as Jetray flew by them. He avoided them all except for one that sent him crashing into the lake. He was disorientated a bit and failed to notice the approaching speed boat.

"Let's gut this fish!" Jonah said as he approached him at top speed. Jetray was in no conditon to fly and got onto a log to recover, but he was being shot at so he had to change his plans. He ducked down under the water to avoid being hit. Shaw was confused as to where Jetray went, looking in the water to try to find in. He saw the dorsal fin of the Kraken and knew that things were gonna get bad. "It's getting too crowded around here. Dump the trash overboard." He ordered.

As they sped off, they tossed Captain Shaw over the side of their boat.

Jetray, still under water, saw this going on and made an effort to save shaw's life. He darted over and grabbed him with his feet and flew out of the water and headed back to the Rust Bucket.

He saw the camper in the distance. "Almost there." He heard the dial beeping again. "Oh no again."

On shore, Miko was looking through a pair of binoculars.

"Any sign of Jack?" June asked. "He normally doesn't run off like this."

"Not yet." Miko said. She saw Jetray's omnitrix dial time out to turn him back into Jack, sending him and captain Shaw falling towards the ground. They thankfully landed on the Rust Bucket's awning.

"Oh. I hate it when that happens."

Soon...

Jack and captain Shaw managed to get off of the awning. Jack was explaining what he saw.

And the Kraken's nest was full of eggs." Jack explained. "No wonder she's been attacking everything. Jonah must be stealing her eggs."

"And I think I know who Jonah is." Raf said. He was looking up Jonah Melville on his computer. "I did a little checking on Friends of Fish and found out it's not listed on any environmental website. He turned his computer to face June, Shaw, Jack, Arcee/Sadie. and Miko. "Jonah Melville isn't a friend to any kind of wildlife." Raf showed the group a picture of Jonah. There was also an image of him standing triumphantly over the body of a black rhino and one of him showing the catch of the day, an Arapaima. "He travels around the world poaching rare animals, then crates them up and sells them to private collectors."

"Crates them up? I knew it! That crate the Kraken took off their boat had her egg in it!"

"Looks like we were both a little too hard headed." June said.

"We gotta stop them!" Arcee shouted. "But we have no idea where they went."

"They said something about going back to a cannery."

"All this talk doesn't change a thing." Shaw stood up from the chair he sat in. "Mommy or not, that beast is mine. Let's go, I have a spare boat down at the docks." Shaw exited the camper."

"Um guys, before we go, there's one other thing that I have to tell you, and it's the worst part of this."

"What is it Raf?" Miko asked.

"I found out that Jonah already has a buyer for the Kraken eggs lined up. And I'll give you one hint as to who that buyer is. Jack's fought him before."

"What would Zombozo want with a bunch of eggs?" Miko asked.

"You're kidding right?" Arcee couldn't believe what she hear. "It's An-"

"I was just making a joke. But I thought Animo was locked up?"

"Same here. Someone must've either broke him out or paid his bail."

"Either way, we have to stop Jonah and by extension, Animo." June said as the group exited the camper.

Later...

"It'll take a while before the police can get here." Miko said after got off of her phone.

June, Raf, Jack, and Miko were in a small boat with a single motor. Arcee had already headed to the cannery by using her vehicle mode.

Shaw was on the pier and was untying the rope that kept the boat from drifting away. When he had untied the knot, June started the motor and headed towards the cannery.

"What're you doing?! Get back here!" He stood up to see the boat leaving.

"Sorry captain!" Miko shouted.

"You don't know what you're doing! A monster's a monster, and I know a monster when I see one. He saw that there was still a rowboat available for him to use.

At the cannery...

A crane was bringing up the minisub, a semi humanoid mech suit that had four arms, two normal sized and two that had a claw and a stun gun on them respectively. There were two propellers instead of legs. Jonah was in the minisub and had the Kraken's egg in his arms. The crane brought the minisub to the pier, where one of Jonah's minions grabbed it and almost dropped it.

"Careful!" Jonah said as he got out of the minisub. "Or you'll be cleaning up the world's most expensive omelet." He looked at the two Kraken eggs. "After that weird doctor guy pays for these babies, we'll be kicking back on a beach in the bahamas."

Underneath where they stood, the motorboat that June, Raf, Jack, and Miko were on stopped at a ladder. Jack held the boat steady as the other three climbed up.

"See if you can find the eggs." Jack whispered.

"What about you?" Miko replied.

"I'm gonna kick some Friends of Fish tail." Jack ready the Omnitrix.

White fish scales grew on his left arm. His hand became webbed. A phosphorescent light on a stalk grew out of his forehead as his mouth extended. Gill slits opened up on the side of his head. Fins grew on his back as the transformation was complete.

"Ripjaws!" He announced. Seconds later, the Kraken burst out of the water, knocking Ripjaws off the boat. She had burst through the docks and was looking for her eggs, which she found.

"The bigger the Kraken, the bigger the payday." Jonah climbed into the minisub as his goons fired at the lake monster, to no effect. One of the minions ran into the cannery.

The Kraken tossed the other mook into the water and tried to grab her eggs, but they were grabbed by Jonah in the minisub. He managed to get a safe distance away and began firing at the beast.

Ripjaws meanwhile was under the water, and using a more fishlike lower torso, gained up enough speed and leaped out of the water, landing on the glass dome that the operator would see out of.

"You wanna mess with a monster. Try me on for size." Ripjaws turned and faced the container the eggs were in. Jonah pointed the minisub's gun at the alien, but Ripjaws bit it off using his razor sharp jaws. He bit the arm that held onto the egg container, causing its grasper to open and drop the container. Ripjaws dropped down and tried to catch the container, but was knocked away by the minisub. The container shattered when it hit the ground, causing the eggs to roll to the edge of a plank.

While this was going on, Jine, Miko, and Raf were sneaking through the cannery. They saw the goon that ran away in a control room, getting some heavier weapons, June told Raf and Miko the plan in sign language, which neither of them understood.

The guy that the kraken knocked into the drink had climbed up a ladder and had climbed up. He saw the three intruders and pointed his gun at them.

"Alright buddy, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." June said. She was shielding the two kids that were behind her. The three walked back as the blond guy approached them. The tail of the Kraken burst through the wall, getting the attention of the guy that was getting weapons as well as the one that was threatening the trio. "Go high!" June, Raf, and Miko jumped up, grabbing the hooks used for transporting the bodies of fish and used those to avoid falling into the water as the Kraken destroyed the floor with her tail. The man who was in the control room stepped out to see the three approach them, with June in the lead. She kicked the gun that he held out of his hand while Miko kicked him down. Raf dropped down and landed on his chest, incapacitating him.

"Is this the easy way or the hard way?" Raf asked. June just shrugged.

Outside, Jonah, Ripjaws, and the Kraken were in a struggle to get the eggs. The Kraken managed to lift up the plank that her eggs were on to get them away from the thief(Jonah) and the predator(Ripjaws, even though Ripjaws wanted to return her eggs).

"My eggs!" Jonah shouted as he maneuvered the crane to attempt to grab the eggs. Ripjaws jumped and stopped him from grabbing them. They knocked the eggs out of the Kraken's grasp, causing them to fall towards the water.

"They're not your eggs." Ripjaws managed to grab them as he dove down. The minisub dropped into the water. It landed on Ripjaws. making him lose his grip on the eggs.

"Rescuing babies." Jonah said as he used the minisub's larger arms to punch Ripjaws. "Very heroic. But not very smart." He punched Ripjaws away and grabbed the eggs, heading back to the surface.

Ripjaws recovered quickly and formed his humanoid legs into a fish tail and swam after Jonah. He slammed into Jonah, making the poacher lose his grip on the eggs. Ripjaws caught them in his mouth and was careful not to bite down.

The Kraken saw that what she saw as a predator had her eggs and slammed one of her tentacles into Ripjaws' chest, causing him to spit out the eggs. She grabbed them and swam off.

Ripjaws saw the Jonah still hadn't given up and was still trying to get the eggs. He swam after him.

Jonah activated a sonic weapon that caused the beast pain, forcing her to drop the eggs. Jonah used that as an opportunity to grab his prize. Ripjaws slammed into him at high speeds, but Jonah slammed him onto the lake bed. He was holding the eggs in one arm. Ripjaws saw a chain that had an anchor at the end and grabbed onto it, using it as a flail to strike the minisub. Ripjaws tried to rip off one of the arms, but a surge of electricity caused him to lose his grip.

Ripjaws swung the anchor like a lasso and flung it at the fleeing minisub, knocking its right arm off. He yanked on the chair, causing it to wrap around the damaged submersible. The Kraken swam between them, biting the chain and causing the minisub to once again lose its hold on the eggs. Ripjaws grabbed them and his mouth and swam away, the Kraken in hot pursuit.

He eventually made his way to the shipwreck where Ripjaws, as Jack found one of the two eggs earlier. He took them out of his mouth and placed them down gently. The Kraken moved the eggs closer to her to cover them as she heard the engine of Jonah's minisub focusing her attention on the poacher as she knew that Ripjaws was not a threat. She grabbed the minisub with her tentacles and bit down on it, causing water to leak into it. She ripped it apart and forced the poacher into the open water. Jonah go a knife out of the sheaf that was on his left leg and tried to stab the Kraken, but found that it broke.

The Kraken would've eaten Jonah if Ripjaws hadn't stopped her.

"No! Don't eat him. He's not worth it." Ripjaws' voice sounded more high pitched, to demonstrate how it sounds, go into a swimming pool and talk under water. The Kraken somehow understood this and went back to guarding her eggs. Ripjaws turned to Jonah who just shrugged. "And as for you..." Ripjaws punched him out and took him to the surface where he hung him on a wooden post by using his wet suit. "Hang here for a while, until the police find a nice, dry cell for you." Ripjaws said with the rasping voice, now that his gills were out of the water. He saw a police boat arrive and dove into the water.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish." June said as she saw the police haul off the poacher. Raf was pacing back and forth.

"Got one!" Captain Shaw said as he rowed to the dock. "I finally got me a Kraken. One of the eggs must've hatched. Imagine this trophy mounted on my wall." What Shaw had was Ripjaws, but not for long. The Omnitrix timed out, leaving Jack suspended upside down in the net, covered with seaweed.

"I think your catch of the day isn't exactly as advertised." June joked.

"But I could've sworn." Shaw was absolutely confused.

"Um, Raf, what're you doing?" Miko asked.

"Thinking. How can a lake this size support one creature that big, let alone at least two?"

"That might be a mystery that is best left unsolved." June said.

Back in the Kraken's nest, the lake monster was curled up around her eggs. She used one of her tentacles to remove a pile of metal body parts to uncover a blue crystal that she place beside her eggs, causing them to glow light blue.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. If you don't know, the Kraken is in my opinion the strangest creature in Ben 10 bar none. It is never mentioned again until Omniverse, nor is it explained how it survives. With other strange creatures that we know little about from this series, we at least know a little about their origins, but the Kraken is a mystery. Even among the cryptids that have appeared in this show. So I took it apon myself to kinda explain the elephant in the room; its metabolism. It feeds off of energon radiation the same way Godzilla does in the 2014 movie. And the metal body parts were the remains of decepticons that were sent by either Megatron or Starscream to harvest the deposits on the bottom of the lake. Needless to say, they decided to leave this energon source alone.


	16. Doctor Animo Returns

Florida...

The Rust Bucket was in the last place you'd expect to find it, in the middle of a swamp. But there was a second camper that looked almost exactly like it. This was the Rust Bucket two, which was driven here by Max Tennyson, June's father and Jack's grandpa.

The gang was in the Rust Bucket two chatting with the former plumber.

"So you're telling me that Jack as XLR8 was able to get the warship to off itself?" Max sat at the table and was talking with Jack, Arcee, Miko, and Raf. Raf however was looking at all the advanced plumber tech on the Rust Bucket two. "Did you get it on video?"

"Sorry, but I did manage to get a video of the fight between Arcee and Four Arms and Hex's rock monsters.

"You'll have to show me that sometime Miko." Max said. "Anything else happen with team Prime? How's Cliffjumper doing?" Jack shot his grandfather a face that screamed sensitive material.

"Cliff' was killed in the line of duty, by Starscream." Arcee frowned. "But I guess Primus was smiling on me, 'cause it was on that day that I met Jack."

"And you proceeded to give me the cold shoulder when I asked you what was wrong." Jack said. "It took me showing you how brave I was against Airachnid to get you to not see me as deadweight."

"Look, I said I was sorry for how I treated you back then."

"You shouldn't have acted so harshly Arcee, the first step of recovering is letting people in." Max spouted a bit of wisdom. "But I'm happy you've found Jack, you two seem made for each other." He noticed that Raf was more wrapped up in looking at the plumber tech then talking with the group. "Raf, how's your summer been going so far?"

"Oh, pretty good."

"So, Mr Tennyson, why are we in this part of the country?" Miko asked.

"Yeah, you sure we're in the right place grandpa?" Jack too was curious.

"Positive. Just you wait, tomorrow this place'll be crawling with Gator fest fans."

"Well, I'll take your word for it." Jack said. "Might as well get some shuteye before tomorrow." He exited the Rust Bucket two, grabbing a flat head screwdriver on the way out.

"Why'd Jack take a screwdriver with him?" Arcee asked.

"Raf, go check on him." Max said.

"Yes sir Mr Tennyson." Raf exited the Rust Bucket 2 to heard the sound of scraping metal. It was coming from behind the original Rust Bucket. Jack was sitting on the rear bumper and was fiddling around with the Omnitrix with the screwdriver.

"Caught you!" Raf shouted, spooking Jack. "What'cha doing?"

"Who knows how many more aliens are in this thing besides the ones I have unlocked? I just gotta figure out how this thing works." Jack pointed at the dial.

"You shouldn't mess around with that thing Jack. Why not try and unlock them by putting in codes? Or master using the ones you already have. Don't you still have two from the encounter with the Nemesis that you haven't used, the Battasapien and Nemuina."

"That'll take too long. Besides, I already know what to call them, Ichihopper and Nighty Knight."

Raf just thought those names were terrible. "Just please stop messing with it, you're just asking for trouble."

"Okay, just at least let me unlock one more alien."

"Jack, Raf's right." Max said. "We don't know what'll happen if you mess with it so I want you to promise me that you'll take it easy on the Omnitrix. Max headed back to the Rust Bucket two.

"Okay grandpa." Jack replied.

"Now let's all get some sleep 'cause tomorrow's a big day, goodnight."

Raf went into the Rust Bucket as did Miko and Arcee. Jack managed to do something to the Omnitrix. He got the face place off, causing it to fling off and land in the swamp's soil. "Yeah!" Jack exclaimed. "Oh no." A flash of green light came from the Omnitrix. When the flash dissipated, he saw that the faceplate had fallen off. "Oh man, I'm gonna be in so much trouble if anybody sees this." Jack picked up the faceplate and pocketed it.

June exited the Rust Bucket with Arcee in tow. June was wearing her pajamas. "Jack?"

"What was that?" Arcee was concerned.

"What was what?" Jack acted like he didn't do anything. He held the possibly broken Omnitrix behind his back.

"What was that noise and that flash of light?"

"Lightning."

"There's not a cloud in the sky."

"Lightning got rid of them."

"June, I know this tone. He's up to something."

"You guys are too paranoid."

"Jack, we're concerned about you." June said. "Let's all just get a good night's sleep. We had a long drive today and there's gonna be a lot of excitement here tomorrow." June pointed to the door.

As they entered the Rust Bucket, the patch of ground that the Omnitrix faceplate landed on glowed light green.

The following morning...

Jack exited the Rust Bucket. He was chewing some bubble gum and after seeing that his mom was still asleep, he used it to try to fix the Omnitrix.

"There, good as new."

"What's good as new?" Miko came up from behind Jack and surprised him.

"Nothing. Forget I said anything being good as new."

Miko and Jack walked to the other side of the Rust Bucket to see the spectacle that is Gator Fest. There were a bunch of people having a good time.

"Woah." Arcee said as she and Raf exited the Rust Bucket.

"Didn't I tell yah?" Max walked up from behind the four. "June, you coming?"

June exited the Rust Bucket. Her face was pale. "Sorry dad, I've got one of those twenty four hour bugs. But don't let that stop you guys from having a good time."

"Well then, let the gator fest begin." Max said as he saw June go back into the Rust Bucket.

Unbeknownst to them, there was a large red frog eye in the swamp behind them.

The group walked by a bunch of different stands selling all kinds of items from plush alligators to hamburgers.

"Jack, what's a 'gator'?" Arcee whispered as to not draw attention to herself.

"It's short for alligator."

There were two guys fishing.

"Hey Larry, check out these weird worms." One of the fishermen pulled out a couple of creatures that looked like stinkfly without the clothing or the wings.

They walked over to a patch of swamp soil that was covered in swamp plants.

"You know, I think you're gonna enjoy this." Max said. "It is a rare event."

"You mean like Miko getting anything above a B?"

There was moving in the matted grasses. Several tiny alligator heads poked out of it.

"Aw." Everybody found the baby alligators cute. They cheered when they reached the water, but something was up.

"Aw, they are kinda cute." Arcee said.

The alligator hatchlings ran out of the water and through the crowd.

"What're they afraid of?" Jack turned to face the fleeing new born alligators. "They're alligators."

"Yeah that is very odd, what'cha suppose would make them do that?"

"I'll give you one guess, and it goes ribbit."

"Christopher Walken?"

"Yeah, wait. What?" Arcee said. "No, look!" She turned Jack around to make him see the mutated frog that could only belong to one person.

"No way." Jack was in a state of disbelief. "I recognize that croaker. That's doctor Animo's frog."

The mutated frog flung its tongue at the group. They managed to get out of the way so that it wouldn't get them.

"This is so not my idea of leap frog." Jack said. Unbeknownst to him, the gum that was holding the Omnitrix faceplate on gave out and caused it to fall off. Jack looked around for the mutated amphibian's master. He turned around and came face to face with the mad doctor himself. Animo was wearing a grey metal vest and had two gorrilla like arm attachments. "Doctor Animo! How-"

"Did I find you?" Animo was in a sort of a stand off with Jack. "It wasn't difficult by any means to track your alien exploits, when you insist on helping people all the time. You thought you were such a big shot after stopping my mutated creations. But they were merely the beginning. I will not be denied my place in history. Destroy him!" He ordered his mutated frog.

The frog flung its tongue at Jack, who rolled to get out of the way.

"You're going back where you belong Animo!" Arcee, in her human guise ran towards the mad scientist.

"Never Autobot!" Animo held out his right gauntlet and fired a blast of energy at the ground in front of her path, which caused her to be flung into one of the booths.

"Okay Doctor Freakimo, party's over!" Jack activated the Omnitrix. He had a nervous grin on when he selected Humungousaur.

"Jack, you're..." Max wasn't sure what happened.

"Humungo-chill?" Miko ran up to see the new alien, which was as big as Humungousaur and had Big Chill's wings, eyes, feet, hands, and coloring, but had Humungousaur's head, torso, limbs and tail.

"Humungousaur in Big Chill's body?" Humungo-chill jumped out of the way to avoid Animo's mutated frog. He saw the Omnitrix face plate. "Must be another new alien." The hybrid reasoned. "Now I can fly and kick butt at the same time. Cool." The mutated frog leaped on to Humungo-chill, who tried to lift up the mutant, but found that he wasn't as strong as he once was. "You gained weight since last time. Or I'm not as strong as I used to be." Humungo-chill lost the battle between him and gravity. The mutated frog squashed him. It then leaped away, allowing Humungo-chill to get up. The frog was about to jump on him again, but Humungo-chill managed to fly back, but found that he couldn't take off. "Urg! I'm too big to fly!" He was tossed into the swamp by the mutant, getting the attention of the alligators, who swam around the two genetic abnormalities. Humungo-chill jumped through the murky water, using his wings to get larger jumps. When he made it back to the shore, Humungo-chill grabbed a metal alligator that was being used by a hamburger stand as part of their stand as a bat to hit the frog as it leaped at him.

That sent it flying towards its master, who was thrown back to where the Omnitrix face plate was. He saw that there was a crab on it. The crab grew turned orange and the top of its shell opened up, revealing a brain that shot lightning. "Well well." Animo picked up the face plate. "What do we have here?" He hopped on his frog, with both the mutated crab and the Omnitrix dial. "Let's go." He left the scene.

Humungo-chill tried to freeze him in place, but nothing happened. He was then reverted back into Jack.

"That's right, you better run!" Jack warned, though that warning had no weight to it.

"So Jack, why'd you turn into some freaky alien combo platter?" Miko asked.

"What did you do to the watch?!" Raf saw the damaged Omnitrix.

"No biggy, it goes right back on." Jack said. The five of them looked around for it. "It was right here." Jack said. "I saw right before Doctor Animo and froggy hopped-" Jack went wide eyed at the realization. "Oh scrap!"

At an observatory, night time...

Animo was working on his latest machine, which was a large cannon style device.

"Fascinating." Animo said as we walked on the barrel of the cannon. "DNA based, yet with a power source unlike any I could've imagined." He placed the Omnitrix face plate into a compartment. It was held down by a two clamps. The compartment closed. In the corner if his eye, Animo saw a bat hanging on the ceiling. "What perfect guinea pig." Animo got in the operator's chair. "You shall be the first in a new world order, courtesy of Jack Darby." He placed his gauntlets in slots that were specially made to accommodate them. "And Doctor Animo." He took aim at the bat and fired at it. "Yes! Give my creation life!" Animo proclaimed as the bat was engulfed in a flash of green light.

Meanwhile...

Jack, Raf, Miko, and Sadie were in a river boat while Max steered it.

"We've been at this for hours." Miko was exhausted.

"We have to keep looking. If the not-so good doctor can figure out how tap into the Omnitrix's alien DNA, who knows what could happen."

"Could this day get any worse?" The group heard a roar.

"What was that?" Raf was scared. It was a swamp, in florida, and they were chasing after a mad scientist that uses mutated animals. There was no reason to not be scared.

"I don't know, but I don't like the sound of that."

They saw an approaching bat that appeared to be on fire.

"Woah, it's Heatblast gone batty!" Miko was both amazed and horrified, but mostly amazed.

"Hold on!" Max sped up, getting the swamp boat to go at high speeds to avoid Heatbat's fire blast.

"You think Animo has figured out how to use the power of that piece of the watch?" Arcee asked.

"I'll take care of this hot head." Jack said as he activated the Omnitrix.

"Jack, I don't think going hero is a good idea." Max cautioned. "Who knows what you'll turn into." The bat fired at the boat again. "Everybody duck!" They avoided being roasted by the bat-pyronite hybrid.

"If I don't we're gonna get barbecued, cajun style." The boat took a sharp turn. "Give me something good." Jack said as he selected Diamondhead.

The boat swerved, knocking Jack off the bench, but not into the water. He was transformed into what appeared to be Grey Matter, but was made out of the same material as Diamondhead. He also had some of the features of Diamondhead as well. "Aw man! Diamondhead and Grey Matter?" Diamond Matter stood up. "I'm a razor sharp hood ornament." Heatbat flew over and grabbed Diamond Matter. The Petrosapien-Galvan hybrid was dropped into the swamp, where he managed to get to the surface, but was soon attacked by an alligator.

"Jack! Behind you!" Arcee shouted. Diamond Matter was swallowed by the gator. This would've been the end if not for Diamond Matter's ability to make himself sharper, causing the alligator to spit him out. He landed on a tree branch, which he stuck to.

"Could this get any worse?" Jack saw the approaching Heatbat. "I had to ask."

Heatbat lounged at Diamond Matter, shattering the limb he was stuck on. That caused him to fall into the swamp boat, where he was caught by Arcee. As Heatbat approached, Max got an idea.

"Hold on!" Max caused the boat to skid, splashing water at Heatbat, extinguishing its flames, forcing it to retreat.

"He's probably headed back to Animo." Diamond Matter said. "Follow that Mutant bat!"

"Can't. Road blocks up ahead!"

"I'll clear the path!" Diamond Matter turned his arms into blades. He began chopping the trees that were in their way. "I wish Diamond Matter was a bit more of a tough guy." The Omnitrix started to time out. "Oh no!" When it timed out, Jack was left with his arms extended out in front of him. They were approaching a large tree. "Grandpa! Hard left!" Jack yelled. Max did as Jack said and it was a straight shot after that. "Where'd it go?" Jack asked.

"Over there!" Arcee pointed at an abandoned observatory.

"Looks like an old observatory." Raf said.

"What's an observatory doing in the middle of a swamp?" Miko scratched her head.

"Without the lights from a city, the stars are brighter and can be seen more clearly." Max answered.

The maneuvered through the decaying building until they came to large area where Animo had his machine.

"Animo's been busy." Raf stated as he and the other four looked up to see the cannon.

The mutated frogs leaped out of the water and landed on the boat, sending Jack, Arcee, and Raf to one side of the observatory, and Max and Miko to the other.

"You really should've knocked. It isn't polite to sneak up on people like this." Animo maneuvered his cannon so that he could see the intruders.

"You got something that belongs to me and I want it back!" Jack demanded.

"Ah yes, interesting piece of technology, it's potential power is virtually unlimited. I will put it's alien DNA to good use."

"What do you mean good use?"

"With this telescope I shall be able of bounce my transmogrifier signal off of a satellite and blanket the planet with its power, creating a new, more interesting world order."

"Okay, science project's over Doctor Quack."

"Oh, but it's just beginning." Animo placed his gauntlets in the control slots. "In fact, you should be privileged to be the first, human test subjects!" He fired the mutagenic beam at Jack and Raf, who were pushed out of the way by Arcee. Arcee was hit by the blast. He ID mask fell off, showing the changes to her true form. She now look almost exactly like Airachnid, with the only difference being the color scheme. He then took a shot at Miko and Max, who were too shocked to move. They were mutated as well. Max was turned into some freaky hybrid of stinkfly and human that was more of a slug than a flyier, while Miko got luckier, her mutated form was a lot more refined and one could tell that she was half human and half XLR8.

"I don't feel any different." Miko then looked at her hand to find that they were claws. "Ew! Ew! Ew! Gross!" Miko ran over to Jack, Raf, and the now half spider alien Arcee when she saw what Max was turned into. She looked at her reflection and like what she saw. She was a more feminine version of Jack's fastest alien form, but her colors were based on her human clothes.

Jack looked at his slug like grandfather and Airachnid look alike partner and felt a ton of guilt. "If I had just listened to grandpa max about messing with the watch, none of this would've happened."

"Forget about that, right now we need a plan." Raf said.

"A successful test indeed, but as a scientist, I must be sure."

Raf saw that Jack was trying to transform.

"You're gonna try and go alien again?" Raf was more than a bit worried.

"And if I don't who knows what we'll turn into? Maybe it'll be useful like you, or useless like grandpa's." Jack somberly said. Animo fire again at Jack who was busy selecting an alien to use, but Miko took the shot, which had no effect on her. Jack was running down the pier, looking through the Omnitrix for Jetray. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the mutated frog blocking his path. He tried to run the other way, but Heatbat was blocking his path. Jack transformed into an alien that had Ripjaws' torso and head, but had Heatblast's arms and legs and had flames in place of fins. "Heatblast and Ripjaws? Not the best combo."

Animo saw this evolutionary dead end and decided to mock it. "Well well, what do we have here? A walking fish fry?"

"Turn my friends and family back to normal, or so help me-" Heat Jaws tried to shoot flames at Animo, but found that they were extinguished seconds after being ignited.

"Ah, looks like you're the one who's going to need help." Animo fired his ray at Heat Jaws, but when he stood up to see the results he went wide eyed when he saw that the hybrid was unaffected.

"Hey, nothing happened."

"But it affected you last time? Why didn't it work this time?" Raf asked, remembering that when Jack, as Wildmutt was hit by the transmogrifier, he turned into Ultimate Wildmutt.

"It seems that your altered state seems to make you immune to the effects of my ray. Pity. Instead of giving you a new life, I will just have to settle for ending your old one. Finish him my pets." Animo commanded. The frog shot its tongue at Heat Jaws, who was knocked into Heatbat's claws. Heatbat flew up into the air and after flying down, slammed Heat Jaws into the wall. "Okay, time to fight fire with fire!" Heat Jaws shot a stream of flame at Heatbat, which did nothing to the mutated bat, but caused Heat Jaws to dehydrate faster. Heatbat fired a stream of fire from its mouth at the contradiction, weakening him even further. Heatbat dove at Heat Jaws, who jumped out of the way to avoid being skewered by the flaming bat. He ran over and grabbed one of the stalagmites and used it as a club to beat the bat. He knock the hell bat into the water, but was severely weakened. The mutant frog slung its tongue at the hybrid, but Miko struck its tongue with her claws, and pushed Heat Jaws into the water.

Miko was using her new Kineceleran powers to fight of the frog, avoiding its tongue and jumping across the gap to deliver a kick or a series of jabs. She eventually managed to incapacitate it.

Meanwhile, Raf was running up the steps and was being followed by the giant transmogrifier.

"Welcome to my world." Animo fire the ray. It would've hit Raf if not for a strand of spider webbing pulling it to the left at the last minute. Animo saw that it was Arcee who saved Raf from being mutated. He also saw Heatbat getting out of the water. "Get the boy!" He ordered. Heatbat flew at Raf, who ducked under a broken part of the stairs to try to stall his pursuer. Heatbat broke through and got his head stuck, allow Raf to get ahead. Animo knew that it would only be a matter of time before Raf was caught. He looked at a screen. "Ah, the satellite is almost in position." He was so close to victory that he could almost taste it. "Now who says one man can't change the world?"

Raf ran on a plank of wood and when he got to the end, he leaped off of it and landed on the giant transmogrifier. He saw that there was a panel, which he opened and went in. "You haven't won yet Animo." Raf said as he crawled through the inner workings of the machine.

Jack Miko was attacked by Heatbat, she was grabbed by it and was lifted up in the air. She was slammed into the wall, but before the Pyronite bat could do it a second time, a spout of water came up and extinguished the flames. Heat Jaws climbed out of the water and onto the dock, with Miko there to help him up.

"Come on! Where are you?" Raf said as he continued to look for the missing Omnitrix part in an increasingly narrow shaft. It suddenly went near vertical.

Animo had pressed a button that caused the modified telescope to rise up. It tilted as it targeted the satellite. "The next evolution is about to go viral!" Animo proclaimed. The control console was shot by a stream of flame.

"Change them back or I'll boil your rear!" Heat Jaws threatened.

"And ruin my best work? Forget it!" Animo was not intimidated. "But worry not, I'll give them some company, like the entire planet. Animo inserted his gauntlets and prepared to fire, but the beam shut down. "My mutant ray! What happened?!"

"I borrowed this back." Raf had emerged from the cannon with the Omnitrix faceplate in hand. "Got a problem with that?"

"Give it back to me!" Animo demanded. "Only my genius can utilize such power to its full potential!"

Raf climbed up the outside of the telescope, somehow managing to hold on. Animo pursued him, but was shot by Heat Jaws and sent plummeting into the ground.

"You okay?" Raf asked.

"Yeah, but I wish we could say the same about Arcee and grandpa." Heat Jaws began to fall into despair. "You guys were right. I just wish I could take back everything I've done." He said.

"Jack, that's unintentionally the smartest thing you've said today!" Raf got an idea of how to fix things. Raf went back into the telescope.

"Uh. what'd I say?" Heat Jaws was confused. "What're you doing?"

Raf re emerged from the maintenance hatch. "Fire it up!"

"Are you mental! Who knows what it'll do to them?"

"It can't be any worse than what they are now?"

"Umm, for me, it can be worse, I like being XLR-chan." Miko said. "I don't wanna go back to being a human."

Arcee shot a web blast that kept Miko in place. "You're gonna be normal and like it." Arcee gasped, to weak to speak clearly.

Heat Jaws had gotten Animo's gauntlets on and had his arms in the slots for operating the machine. "Three... Two... One..." He fired the beam of green energy at the three mutants returning them to their original forms. "Guys, you're back!"

"Back? Where'd I go?" Max asked as he got onto his feet.

"What did you do in there?" Heat Jaws asked.

"I put the face plate in backwards and hoped that it would reverse the effects of Animo's ray, too bad we can't just do the same for you." Raf said as the Omnitrix started to time out.

"Maybe we can. Quick, throw me the face plate." Raf tossed it to Heat Jaws, who place it on the Omnitrix dial right before he was reverted back into a human. "Yeah it worked! Good as n- what the?" Jack saw that something happened to the Omnitrix, it was less watch like and more like a bracelet. It was mostly black. "What happened to the Omnitrix?"

"Why do I have this strange craving for rotten eggs and sugar water?"

Later, in the Rust Bucket two...

"I feel like I'm watching a rerun." Miko said as she watch Animo get hauled off by the police.

"You have not seen the last of me!"

"I wonder if he learned his lesson?" Arcee asked.

"You don't mess with Team Omnitrix." Raf replied.

"Speaking of which, Jack let's see if you're aliens are back to normal." Arcee said. "Turn into Swampfire."

"Okay." Jack pressed a green button and cycled through what were once holograms to find that they were now silhouettes. "I can't find him."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't have him any more. Something must've caused the Omnitrix to reset and it knocked me back down to even less than when I started. It seems that I only have ten aliens."

"Which ten?" Raf asked.

Jack cycled through the ten that he had remaining. "Heatblast, Grey Matter, XLR8, Wildmutt, Four Arms, Upgrade, Diamondhead, Ghostfreak, Ripjaws, and Stinkfly. So no Big Chill or Waspinator." Jack frowned. "Basically, I'm back to basics."

"Don't worry Jack, will help you get them back." Arcee hugged him, reassuring her partener that things are going to be okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. And here's Max Tennyson, Jack's grandfather. And I had Animo use the transmogrifier on not just him, but Arcee and Miko, but Miko got the better effect, being turned into a hybrid of Kineceleran and human, 'cause if you've ever seen Doctor Animo and the Mutant Ray, there really was no reason that all the mutants would be of the same aliens. And for those wondering, no, Arcee was not mutated with Insecticon CNA. The Omnitrix only has a partial sample, seeing as half of it is Jack's own, so Arcee for the climax of this chapter was half Arachnichimp. Miko had near full use of her temporary alien powers because she was younger. Arcee could only manage a few strands of webbing because she was older. Max had no use of Stinkfly's abilities due to his age, he was that oldest.
> 
> Oh, and the Omnitrix is now not gonna work properly, it's gonna function exactly like the one from the Original series. And he has quite a few aliens locked now, including but not limited to, Swampfire, Big Chill, and Chromastone. (Basicly, he has all of the aliens from season two of the original series and beyond are locked. So now Jack has only ten alien forms, which are the first ten from the original series, which are Heatblast, Wildmutt, Diamondhead, XLR8, Grey Matter, Four Arms, Stinkfly, Ripjaws, Upgrade, and Ghostfreak. If you think that's so he can get them back then the answer is no. The only ones that he's gonna re-unlock in this story will be Cannonbolt and Wildvine. The rest he won't get back until much later, around the time I get to the majority of Alien Force. That'll be three years away for Jack, so he'll probably forget about most of those forms, except for Humungousaur and Big Chil. (Those two will reappear.)
> 
> I did this, not so I just didn't have to make a new design for the Omnitrix when I get this to alien force, I did this because I wanted everything to have consequences, both good and bad ones. If Jack got all of his alien back after he beat Animo, what's to stop him from messing with the Omnitrix if he knows that things won't break? If he knows that he'll be depowered if he tampers with it, he'll be less likely to do so.


	17. Vince

Mobile, Alabama...

The group was spending the night at a hotel instead of in the Rust Bucket. June, Raf, Arcee/Sadie, Miko, and Jack were sitting in the seats that were available.

"Wow!" Miko read through what there was. "This hotel has everything; indoor swimming pool, full day spa."

"Now don't get used to it, it's only for the next two nights." June said.

"Thanks again for getting your dad to take us here June." Arcee said.

"Don't mention it. As much as I like traveling in the Rust Bucket, it'll be nice to just relax for a couple of days."

Jack was still moping after breaking the Omnitrix.

"Jack, what's got you down?" June saw that Jack was pretty depressed.

"I broke the Omnitrix." Jack admitted.

"You what?!"

"I was messing around with it the other day and knocked the face plate off, which allowed Animo to mutate Miko, Arcee, and grandpa. We fixed it, but now I lost most of my alien forms."

"Most? How many do you have left?"

"Ten. And look at this." Jack rolled up the sleeve of his jacket to show his mom the Omnitrix's changed appearance. "Can things get any worse?" Jack hung his head in shame.

"Scrap." Arcee saw someone who she recognized. "Don't look now."

"Who is it? Is it one of the 'cons?" Jack turned around to see a red headed boy that he recognized from school. "Oh no, Vince."

"Here?" Nobody in the main group liked Vince.

The bully walked over to the group.

"Hey Darby." Vince said as he leaned on Jack's forehead. "How's summer break been?"

"Oh pretty good, until you decided to show up."

"What? You're not glad to see me? After all we've been through?"

"You mean after all the times you've insulted him, stole from his job, and harassed him?" Sadie said.

"Oh look at you babe. How much did this loser have to pay you to get you to go out with him?" Vince tried to hit on Arcee.

"First off. Don't call me babe. Second, Jack didn't have to pay me a dime." She was shooting daggers at the hoodlum that in the past had insulted her.

June had a pretty good idea where this exchange was going and covered Raf's ears.

"So you'll go out with any guy who promises you a good time?" Vince had walked over and stood behind Sadie. He whispered into her ear, "Why don't you drop this loser and I'll show you how a real man treats a woman."

Jack went from being depressed to being enraged. He went into the bathroom to get out of the view of bystanders. He stood in a stall and transformed into Ghostfreak. While intangible and invisible, Ghostfreak flew out of the bathroom and went to deal with Vince.

"Now why would a girl like Sadie go out with a jerk like you Vince?" Ghostfreak whispered into Vince's ear. "She seems to be more interested in Jack than you."

"W-who said that?" Vince panicked, looking around for the source of the voice.

"Aw, what's the matter, is the big bad Vince afraid of a little ghost?" Ghostfreak entered Vince's body and began controlling him. He made Vince punch himself. "Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself!" Ghostfreak said through Vince's mouth.

"What's going on?" June asked. "Wait, don't tell me, Jack."

Sadie nodded.

"Jack stop." June told her son to stop.

"Okay mom." Ghostfreak left Vince's body. He didn't make it back to the restroom before the Omnitrix timed out. "Oh no!" Ghostfreak went back to being Jack.

"What just happened Darby?" Vince grabbed Jack by the neck and held him up. He saw his rolled up sleeve. "Nice watch. Mind if I borrow it." Vince tried to remove the Omnitrix but was unsuccessful. "What the? You better fork it over or else!

"Or else what?"

"Or else..." Vince started punching Jack, who tried to fight back.

The lady at the front desk spoke to Max, who was filling out the forms. "Is that man with you?" She asked.

"Yes, he's my grandson." Max turned around to see Jack and Vince fighting. "Oh no."

"If that's the case, company policy dictates that I have to ask you and your party to leave."

"Well, rules are rules." Max walked to to June who was showing her shame.

"June, I'm sorry, but we're being kicked out."

"Is it because of those two." She spoke of Jack and Vince.

"Yep."

"Aw man!" Raf showed his disappointment. "Way to go Vince."

"Sucks to be you." Vince left Jack's writhing in pain on the floor as he exited the hotel.

The group went back to the Rust Bucket to regroup.

"Okay Jack, mind telling me what happened?" Max said.

"Vince was hitting on Arcee and being a dick while doing it, so I went Ghostfreak to teach him a lesson." Jack explained. "Then, before I could get back to the bathroom, the Omnitrix timed out and Vince saw me and took his anger out on me. He tried to take the watch and couldn't get it off."

"So now because of you being Arcee's blue knight, you got us kicked out of a four star hotel. And that was before I got a chance to take a shower, in a real shower for the first time all summer." Miko said. "Nice going doofus."

"Jack, how do you expect me to trust you if you keep misusing the Omnitrix?" June asked.

"Excuse me, I was just using it to defend Arcee." Jack glared at his mom.

"And not that I don't appreciate the help, but I can deal with Vince thank you very much." Arcee replied.

"And you should've dealt with it non violently." Max said.

"What? And just let him beat me up?"

"Yes, er, no, the point is, your retaliation got us kicked out of that hotel."

"It's no big deal."

"Maybe to you. And Jack, I know you care about other people, but you picked the wrong time to start thinking about yourself." Max was getting mad at his grandson. He let his daughter decide on the punishment. "June, he's your son, so you pick the punishment."

"Jack, you really messed up this time." June said. "And as punishment, no more Kamen Rider stuff for two weeks. No comics, no action figures, no-"

"Fair!"

"Neither is getting booted out of a four star hotel that I already payed for!"

"The one time I act like Miko, I get punished for it."

"Um, in my defense, I'd never get into a fight that would cost us a couple of nights here."

"Stay out of this!" Jack, June, and Max shouted at Miko,

"This is my vacation too!" Jack shouted. "Plus I'm sixteen, you can't always tell me what to do!" Jack glared at his grandfather. "You're not my dad, or Optimus."

"Well, if I was, I'd. I'm going back to the hotel and I'm gonna see if I can at least get a partial refund."

Jack stormed to the back of the Rust Bucket.

"He'll be fine." Arcee said as Jack closed the curtain. Max exited the Rust Bucket. "I hope."

When Max had left, Jack exited the Rust Bucket as well.

"And where do you think you're going?" June asked.

"Out."

Jack walked off.

"June, I'll get him back."

"He needs to cool off. But just incase, Miko, follow him. I don't want him getting into too much trouble."

Miko ran after Jack and stayed ten steps behind him. Jack went into an arcade and Miko followed.

"Next summer I'm spending it in Japan." Miko said.

In the arcade, Jack was playing a baseball game. The ball was pitch, but right as Jack made his avatar swing, he was hit with a game over screen.

"Game over? There has to be a game for it to be over!" Jack was frustrated. Jack spoke to one of the Arcade's employees. "This thing ate my tokens."

"Read the sign bro, play at your own risk." The guy walked off.

"This place is a rip off, you know that!"

"You're right." Someone who Jack knew said. "The games here suck."

"Oh hi Vince. Here to get me kicked out of a second place in Mobil?"

"Nah, back at the hotel, I was hitting on your girlfriend, and you wanted me dead." Vince explained. "We may not get along, but I can respect that."

"Thanks, I guess." Jack was about to play a different game. "But you're right about the games sucking. But at least they don't suck as much as his sis does, if you know what I mean."

"I never took you to be a comedian, you're actually pretty funny." Vince placed his hand on the buttons for one of the games. "Here, you owe me one." Electricity arced out of Vince's hand, which caused tokens to come out of the cabinet.

"Woah! How'd you do that?"

"I've got some skills." Vince said. Miko walked around the corner of the row of arcade machines and saw Jack, Vince, and the pile of tokens.

"Jack, I know it's me saying this, but we can't take those. They're not ours." Miko said.

"They are now." Jack scooped up a large handful of them. "Thanks." Jack said. "Wanna play some air hockey?"

"Nah, gotta go." Vince said. He saw two teens who were older than he was.

"Jack, don't you remember what he's done to you in the past?"

"Yeah. But I won't hold that against him." One of the teens Vince was fleeing from pushed Jack to the side. "You wanna play air hockey?" Jack asked.

Vince was cornered by the a third nineteen year old guy, this one had blue hair that he had in a mullet.

"Well well, long time no see freak." The mullet owner said. "Where're you going? Home to recharge your batteries?"

"Need some help?" Jack asked.

"Ha, he's gonna need a lot more help that you." A bald twenty year old with a ring on his lip said. He picked Jack up and tossed him away. "Now beat it!"

"I've got some skill too." Jack went behind one of the arcade cabinets.

"Oh no not again." Miko facepalmed when she knew what Jack was going to do.

Jack transformed into XLR8, who due to the Omnitrix being broken, now had green eyes.

"So, how's your ride?" Vince asked. "Still trashed like your hangout?"

"Yeah, and you're gonna pay." Baldy said. "You can't take us on all alone, can't you, freak."

"But I can!" XLR8 boasted.

"Ha ha ha! Isn't it a bit early for Halloween?"

XLR8 ran around one of the hoodlums, propelling him up in the air. He stopped running, which caused him to plummet to the ground. Right before he landed, XLR8 struck him with his tail, sending him flying into one of the change machines. XLR8 sped off.

"Where'd he go?" The owner of the responsible mullet asked. He vanished in a blue flash. A second later, the large african american guy also vanished. Both of those guys were piled on top of the first guy to be knocked out. That only left one that had dyed his hair dark green.

This last guy back up and tried to run away, but found XLR8 behind him. The creature that he and his friends had insulted raised its visor. "Trick or treat?" The green haired guy ran off. XLR8 waved at Vince before running off.

Later, Outside the arcade...

"I can't believe you went alien!"

"He helped me so I helped him. You wouldn't get it."

"But he's your Breakdown."

Jack looked at Miko like she just spouted gibberish. "My what?"

"Your arch enemy."

"No, that would be-" Jack had to think about this for a second. "I'll get back to you on that."

Vince exited the arcade as well.

"Did you see what that speed guy did to those loosers?"

"Yeah. His name's XLR8, and he one of my friends."

"Cool, hey, you two want a tour of Mobile?"

"You keep your mom and grandpa waiting any longer and they might pop another gasket. We gotta go. Like now Jack."

"Don't you mean you have to go?"

Miko scoffed then walked away. "You're on your own."

"Good! That's the way I want it." Jack and Vince walked off.

Jack and Vince were walking down the street. Jack started the conversation between them.

"So, how'd you get those powers?" Jack asked.

"I was born with them. I'm like an energy sponge, motors, air conditioners, lights, batteries, whatever, I soak it up and dish it out when I have to, or want to."

"Sweet." Jack replied.

"Come on, I'll show you where I'm staying."

At the Rust Bucket...

Miko entered, to find June, Max, and Arcee waiting.

"Where's Jack?" Max asked, glaring at her.

"Yeah, about that..."

Where Vince was staying...

Jack and Vince walked into an abandoned factory. Vince's car was in here, as was a few other things.

"You're living here? What about your family?"

"They're still in Nevada. I only live with them during the school year. Over the summer, I'm allowed to do whatever. Basically, for three months out of the year, I don't have to listen to anybody."

"Sounds good to me." Jack shrugged. "So why was that gang after you?"

"I kinda trashed their hang out under the bridge that crosses the mobile river."

"What about you? Seems like you mom and her dad are pretty pissed at you. Seems like they want to cut your hand off or something." Vince laughed. "And all for getting in one little fight."

"Yeah. That's how it normally is, do what everybody tells me to do, then the one time I let loose I get severely punished for it."

"Hey Jack, I heard that you like Kamen Rider."

"Why, you gonna make fun of me for it?"

"Nah, but I am more of a sentai guy myself, but that's neither here nor there. Thing is, I know where you can get the latest game in that series."

"You mean the one that won't be out until Christmas?" Jack was amazed. "How'd ya find out?"

"I got a tip that a new shipment came in." Vince said. "Help me out and I'll send the game to your house."

Jack wasn't acting like his normal self, so he agreed without a second thought. "Sure, let's do it."

"Great, you'll need this." Jack was handed an ID mask by Vince.

"What's this?" Jack asked, pretending he didn't know what it was Vince had given him.

"An ID mask, place it on and you look like someone else."

Jack put the ID mask on and his and his appearance was changed to that of a man in his early thirties and wore the gear that a port worker would. "Neat."

Vince put one on and his appearance was changed to that of an african american man in his early thirties that was wearing the same gear as Jack's disguise.

Jack removed his ID mask before speaking. "Okay, but why do we need the fake faces?"

"To get past the security checkpoint." Vince showed Jack a black wallet with a piece of white paper in it that had fractal lines on it. "Also gonna need this."

"And this is?" Jack legitimately had no idea what it was that Vince had."

"Psychic paper. It allows me to show somebody what ever I want them to see."

Later, at Pinto Island Terminal...

Jack and Vince were in the latter's car, both of them had their disguises on. Vince managed to get them through without incident. They parked the car and made their way to a door that led to the main warehouse. Vince held his hand against a keypad, which he then fried with his powers. Vince then kicked down the door and they entered.

"Woah." Jack said after Vince flicked on the lights, revealing the stacks of crates.

Vince walked over to one of the crates and opened it to find the games, which was Kamen Rider Battride War. "Check it out." Jack was tossed one by Vince. "The wait's over dude."

Smoke grenades were thrown through the windows. Helicopters were heard flying around outside of the building and were shining their spotlights in through the windows. Apparently, Jack and Vince had tripped the silent alarm.

"What'd we do?!" Jack was starting to panic.

"Get out of here!" Vince and Jack tried to run to where they entered the building from, but there was a spotlight shone on them, so they ran the other way. Jack was gonna exit from one of the other doors, but it was kicked open by a couple of police officers in full SWAT gear.

Vince however went to absorb some energy from an outlets, causing his eyes to glow blue.

"Freeze punks!" One of the SWAT officers ordered. He and his buddy were approaching Jack.

Vince, now charged up, got in the seat of a forklift.

"Time to MST3K things!" Vince said as he touched where the key would go with his left hand that had a ball of blue lightning in it. He jumped out of the forklift as it drove into one of the SWAT officers. He was rammed into a stack of boxes but was no kill. He was tossed to the side as the forklift tipped over opposite of him.

The officer only had this to say: "MST3K thing? He tried to kill me with a- oooh I get it!"

Jack and Vince ran out of a door that faced the river. They thought that they were gonna get out of there safely, but they were wrong. Two police cars were on either side of them and a helicopter was in front of them.

"Great. No way out." Jack said.

"Any ideas?"

"Only one. But Vince, I know we don't see eye to eye, but can you promise me that you can keep a secret?"

"Sure."

Jack removed his ID mask and pressed the green button on the Omnitrix. He cycled through the silhouettes until he found one.

"What're you doing with your watch? And isn't that the watch I tried to take from you?"

Jack was turned into Stinkfly, only the dual was now on his head and no longer had the blue outline.

"Ah! You reak!" Vince covered his nose.

"I know!"

Stinkfly picked up Vince and flew over the SWAT officers that were at the gate. Stinkfly flew over the water and was pursued by two helicopters.

"Wow, and people down here call me a freak." Vince said as Stinkfly continued flying. "How'd ya do that?"

"Talk later." Stinkfly used two of his eyestalks to look behind him. The duo was being shot at by guys with submachine guns, which stinkfly managed to avoid. He flew around the cranes, which allowed them to hide from the helicopters.

"Where'd they go?" One of the pilots asked. Little did he know that Stinkfly and VInce were now hanging on underneath his 'copter.

"I'm running out of time." Stinkfly said.

"Then let's lose them in the city." Vince suggested.

"Good idea." Stinkfly and his passenger flew by the Plaza hotel, spooking the window washer. They went down and were only a few yards above the cars. However, the helicopters were still chasing after them.

One of the gunners was going to shoot Stinkfly, but the alien managed to fly in front of a red double decker bus and after unintentionally causing a minor accident, flew away, being shot at by the SWAT officers. The flew above the Rust Bucket and Rust Bucket two, the drivers of which were furious.

Stinkfly kept on flying through the city.

"Can't shake them." He saw a car carrier truck. "Got an idea!" He flew towards the car carrier, which went through a tunnel. The helicopters couldn't fly after them.

"We'll get them on the other side." One of the pilots said. They flew to the other side of the tunnel, only to find that the giant bug and the guy it was carrying were gone. "Where'd that thing go?" He asked.

Jack poked his head out from behind the seat of the convertible he and Vince were hiding in.

"Yeah!"

A few minutes later...

Jack and Vince ran into an alleyway, where they caught their breath.

"So that watch lets you turn into that Dragonfly thing whenever you want?"

"And not just that one, this thing, it's called the Omnitrix. It works by sending out a special kind of energy that lets me turn into different aliens."

"So how many are we talking about? One, two hundred?"

"I don't know the exact number, but I have ten at the moment."

"Ten? Just ten? Wait, so that speed guy at the arcade, that was you too? And why only ten?"

"Yep, and I was also the thing that caused you to hit yourself." Jack admitted. "And about having only ten, a few days ago I broke a piece off of it and when I put it back on, it sorta caused it to reset and it and only left me with ten."

"How many did you have before it broke?"

"Twenty three."

"And now you have ten? Bummer, Jack 23 sounds a lot better than Jack 10, but after you say that for a while it sorta sounds better. You know what, I take back everything I said about you being a loser." Vince said. "So let's see what other aliens you can morph into."

"It's not that simple." Jack said. "It has a mind of its own."

"Then let me take a look at it, maybe I can make it work."

"Can't. It's stuck on my wrist."

Vince got an idea. "We should be partners." Vince suggested. "Between the two of us with our powers, we could do whatever we want, whenever we want. The world would be our oyster, and no one could do anything to stop us. So what do you say?" He held out his hand. "Friends?"

"Friends." Jack and Vince shook hands.

In the Rust Bucket...

"Of all the stunts Jack has avoided pulling, it's this one he decides to pull? When I find him..."

"I should really be enjoying this." Miko said. "So why aren't I?"

"Mrs Darby, I got some news that might shine some light on why Jack acted so weirdly." Raf said.

"And what's the reason? He finally decided to act like Miko?"

"No, it's the Omnitrix." Raf said. "After we got back from beating Animo yesterday, I asked Arcee to take some scans of Jack and the Omnitrix and after sending them to Ratchet, he says that the Omnitrix is malfunctioning, causing Jack to act immaturely."

"So it's the watch, not the wearer? That still doesn't change the fact that Jack is in so much trouble."

At a train station...

Jack and Vince jumped the turnstiles and were at an underground train station.

"Check it out." Vince said. "Gimme a boost, I need to recharge."

Jack lifted Vince up, who touched a green light and absorbed some energy. They ran onto the tracks went to the switch lever. Vince funneled electricity into it that caused the switch rail to connect to another line.

"Uh, what're we doing?"

"There's a money train loaded with cash coming down the track, so when it crashes into the oncoming passenger train, boom! Instant jackpot! You turn into that XLR8 guy and we're out of here!"

Jack didn't like the sound of Vince's scheme. "Vince, this isn't the same as stealing a single copy of a video game, hundreds of innocent people will be killed. You can't do this!"

"Sure we can, I just switched the tracks."

"I mean I'm not gonna let you do this!" Jack said.

"We shook. We're partners."

"No, this is going way too far!"

"So try and stop me, Omnifreak." Vince shoved Jack.

"You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"You talking about me?!" Vince was getting mad.

"No, I'm talking about what I don't want to be!" Jack tried to tackle Vince, but the bully grabbed him and tossed him at the side of the platform.

"Oh, you do not wanna make me mad." Electricity was arcing from Vince's hands.

"Same here." Jack activated the Omnitrix and cycled through the outlines until he got to Four Arms. But that wasn't the alien he transformed into, Jack was turned into Heatblast. "Stupid broken Omnitrix." Heatblast had to work with what the Omnitrix gave him. "Stand back!"

"Or what? You're gonna burn my dinner?"

"Fight me, you're the one who's gonna get burned."

Vince funneled energy into the switch box, which broke all the lights, making the station very dark, the only light coming from Heatblast.

Heatblast looked around for Vince. Speaking of Vince, he had gotten on to Heatblast's back and was able to absorb some of the Omnitrix's energy, which gave Vince Heatblast's powers. Vince's head now resembled a flaming skull is shoulders, half of his torso, and his right arm were also Heatblast like. "I absorb energy? Remember?"

"You don't have to do this!" Heatblast then attempted to tackle Heat-Vince, but he managed to dodge him and when he was a good distance away, Heatblast was shot in the back by a fireblast.

"It's time I got what's coming to me." Vince glared at Heatblast. "Nobody's calling me freak any more!" The train's horn could be heard. He heard a second horn and turned his head to see a second train approaching.

"You know what that sound is?" Vince sadisticly asked. "Pay day." Heatblast's eyes were wide like dinner plates.

As the trains approached Heatblast didn't know what to do. He had a hair brained idea that would never work, but he had to try. He shot a stream of fire at the switch box, melting it, and somehow that diverted the passenger train to another track.

As the money train approached him, Heatblast made a vortex of fire that caused the driver of that train to flinch as the train drove through it. Heatblast was holding onto the roof of the train.

When Vince saw that Heatblast was gone and he didn't have any money to show for his trouble he decided to use his powers for another purpose. "Forget the money! Time for some priceless revenge!"

Heatblast lost his grip on the front of the roof. He tumbled down the train before managing to melt a small hole that he used to hold on.

In the Rust Bucket...

June was listening to the radio for any Jack related news. Funny, in a few years, she'd be doing the same thing, but with a different attitude.

"And expect delays in the uptown subway line near Dunlap Drive as there have been reports of fires breaking out all over the tunnels." The guy on the radio said.

"Mrs Darby..." Miko said.

"I know." June did a u-turn to get to the place that was described. "Time to whup some ass."

Back on top of the train...

The Omnitrix was starting to time out. Heatblast voiced his worry. "Oh man! I hate that noise!" In a flash of red light he was reverted back into being Jack. The train exited the tunnel and was on a bridge. "Come on! Hold on!" Jack held on for dear life. He wouldn't have been able to hold on much longer. He heard the sound of the Rust Bucket's horn.

June saw the train that her son was holding onto. She flicked a lever that extended the awning. It was on the wrong side.

June saw that the train was about to hit a sign that was gonna kill Jack if he didn't jump off. She went to the other side of the bridge and honked again.

"Oh man this is gonna hurt!" Jack stood up and after getting his balance, jumped off the train before the car he was on reached the sign. He landed safely in the awning.

"Nice catch Mrs D." Miko gave June a thumbs up.

Later...

The Rust Bucket and Rust Bucket 2 were parked behind each other. Miko and Raf were in the second one while the rest of the group was in the original.

"Were you fucking insane?!" June blasted. "Jack, this goes beyond what I thought you would do if you snapped."

"Your mother's right Jack, none of this would've happened if you just listened to us from the beginning. It's all about trust. I thought I could trust you with the Omnitrix, but look what you've done. You've broken it, and used it to commit a crime."

"Look, take away the Omnitrix if you think it shouldn't be on me. But just trust me when I say that Vince is misusing Heatblast's powers right now."

"Max, Jack's right. I may not know Vince personally, but what I know about him leads me to believe that he would use Heatblast's abilities in negative way, well, more negative than what Jack has done." Arcee said. "He was a jerk before, and now that he has those powers, who knows what else he could do?"

"Okay. So, where is he?" Max asked.

"I think I know." Jack said.

"Good. I'm coming too." Arcee said. "Time for this punk to pay."

Under the Cochrane-Africatown USA bridge...

Vince, who still had Heatblast's powers was getting back at the guys who tried to attack him.

"Uh Vince, we can work this out!" The leader pleaded as the human pyronite hybrid approached them.

"Oh, I don't think so!"

Meanwhile...

The Rust Bucket was stopped in traffic. June was driving while Max sat next to her. Miko and Raf were at the table while Arcee sat on the couch.

"Move it!" June shouted as she honked the horn.

"Going stinkfly! See you at the bridge." Jack said before he transformed into Four Arms. "Great, now I turn into Four Arms."

Four Arms exited the Rust Bucket, scraping the door up against some of the other cars.

"Let's go!" Arcee jumped onto Four Arm's back. He jumped from car to car on his way to the bridge.

At the bridge...

Vince had the guys who tried to attack him earlier pinned under a pipe.

"Ha! So much for your gang!" Vince proudly proclaimed. However his pyronite parts disintegrated as the energy wore off. "Huh? What's going on?"

"Your powers gone." Four Arms said as he landed at the base of the bridge. Arcee got off of his back and cracked her knuckles.

"Looks like you're about to give me some more, Jack." Vince said.

"No." Four Arms crossed his arms in denial.

"You don't have a choice." Spheres of energy came from Vince's hands. "Besides, I still got enough juice to fry these guys." Vince was going to zap them, but he was stopped by Four Arms, who grabbed him and caused him to discharge his electrical energy at the bottom of the road. Vince touched Four Arms, which caused his skin to turn red, his right arm became bulkier while a second arm grew underneath both of his arms. His tosso gained more muscle mass. His teeth became larger as his left eye turned in to two yellow ones. His left arm became more muscular as he punched Jack out from under the tunnel and walked towards him, cracking his knuckles after a second pair of smaller arms grew. "Oh this is gonna be real fun!" The now half tetramand Vince chuckled. He had grabbed Arcee and tossed her at Four Arms.

"Tell me about it." The two tetramands fought, clashing in a stand off.

"I'm taking all your alien powers." Vince was slammed into a support pillar by Four Arms, who was then slammed into another pillar by Vince. Vince grabbed Four Arms and kneed him in the stomach. before tossing him at trailer.

The Rust Bucket Drove up from about twenty five yards away. June, Max, Raf, and Miko exited it. And saw Jack clashing with Vince. Max and June ran over to help the guys that Vince beat up escape. "Moving day! Get out!" Max shouted. The guys hightailed it outta there.

Four Arms was getting his rear kicked. He was slammed into another trailer and as he got Vince off of him, he heard the sound that probably haunts his nightmares. The Omnitrix time out beeping. "No!" Four Arms kicked Vince off of him. He ran up as the dial on his left shoulder blinked red. He punched Vince in rapid succession, managing to hopefully knock him out.

"Come on! I give! I give!" Vince conceded. "Please just lighten up." A flash of red light reverted Jack back to being human.

"I just did by about three hundred pounds." Jack joked.

"Guess I went too wild with power." Vince said. "I don't have anyone else like you to help me."

"We can still be friends." Jack said as he walked towards Vince. "You could come with us and use our powers to help others." Jack reached out his hand.

"What's in it for me?"

"For starters, people will like you."

"Jack no!" Arcee shouted as Vince grabbed him and tried to remove the Omnitrix. She removed her ID mask and was in her robot form.

"Oh this was too easy! You're so dim!" He punched Arcee way as she charged at him. "What did your mommy drop you on your head when you were a little baby?"

"Hey!" June shouted.

"Stay out of this lady!" Vince shouted. "Now give me that watch!"

"You're the one who's dim!" Jack shouted as the red lights on the Omnitrix flashed green. "I told you it doesn't come off!" An energy sphere, identical to the one that briefly saved Jack from Vilgax a few days ago came from the watch and sent both Jack and Vince flying in opposite directions. Vince was sent through a pillar while Jack was caught by Max.

Vince was back to being normal, which he expressed his great satisfaction for. "Nooo!" He ran off.

Later...

Jack was covering his face in shame as he sat at the table with everybody looking at him.

"I'm sorry guys, for everything." Jack said.

"We know that." June said. "You're my son and his grandson. And nothing will ever change that."

"But our trust is something you'll have to earn back." Max said.

"If you want to take the Omnitrix, do it. I won't stop you." Jack held out his left hand.

"Keep it. You may have betrayed our trust, but you're still good on the inside." Max said. "Just use it to do the right thing. And don't be like Vince."

In the train station...

"They thought I was a freak now, just wait!" Vince said as his fist lit on fire.

Chapter end...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Here's an idea that I was planning on using from my original idea for this story. I forgot to mention this in chapter eight, but Sierra was originally going to be the Gwen of the group by the time we get to Alien Force, Vince was going to be the Kevin of the group, but seeing as I already have both Gwen and Kevin, Sierra and Vince seemed pointless. But then I remembered Julie and Ship(those two will be in the story by the way). Sierra and Vince will have a relationship similar to those two, but it'll be more one sided. Not in a rapey way, Vince in the future will be like Sierra's guard dog, and Sierra will have the ability to restrain Vince, which will help much later down the line. And yes, Jack did in fact commit a crime. But so did Ben in the original series and nobody brings this up by the time Ultimate Alien and Omniverse roll around. Not even Will Harangue mentions it.


	18. Grey Matter Captured

At a water park...

"Six stories of twists and turns." Jack said as he looked up at the massive yellow water slide. Jack was wearing a pair of blue and black swim trunks on.

"Hurdling down a two hundred foot plunge." Miko continued the description. Miko had a Green and grey one piece swimsuit on.

"At speeds of over twenty five miles an hour." Raf was excited. He was wearing a pair of yellow and black swim trunks.

"Then, splash down in a churning three hundred thousand gallon wave pool."

"You've enter..." Jack said is a Momotaros like fashion.

"The Riptide Rapids Zone!" Miko and Raf hi fived. The trio ran up to the entrance, but Raf was stopped.

"You're too short." The employee who stopped Raf said.

"What're you talking about?" Raf saw the sign the guy pointed at, which was a cartoony narwhal whose horn was just above Raf. "But I'm almost-"

"Next!"

"Sorry Raf, maybe next time." Jack whispered something into Raf's ear.

"They'll all feel small when Ripjaws shows up for a dip." Jack said as he walked behind a pillar. He activated the Omnitrix and attempted to transform. He tried slamming the tower down, but found that nothing was happening. "Come on! Work!" Jack slammed it against the side of the Pillar, causing green energy to come out of it. That transformed Jack into Grey Matter. "Huh? Oh no no no no no no. Anything but being a micro munchin." Grey Matter turned to see a bunch of kids running in his direction. "Uh oh." As the kids got closer, Grey Matter dodged their feet. "Woah! Look out! Watch those flip flops!" Grey Matter ran to the slide.

A man wearing a lifejacket, a green shirt, and a pair of yellow swim trunks was speaking to the water park employee that had told Raf he couldn't go down the slide. "In 1951, when this water park was a cornfield, recently declassified documents suggest that an alien space craft crash landed right here."

Grey Matter ran up to the water park employee's feet and grabbed the ends of his shoe laces. "Time to tie up some loose ends."

"So, if you could get someone from upper management down here so I can start checking soil samples."

The water park employee, whose name was Brad, had little patience for this. "Uh, hold on while I call someone who care." He held his right hand to his head in a fashion similar to that of phone. "Ring ring ring. Guess what dude, no answer. Next in line!"

The guy who was obsessed with UFOs looked down to see Grey Matter running towards to water slide. "Did you see that! An alien!" He shouted, pointing at Grey Matter, but making it seem like he was pointing at Miko. "Maybe a remnant of that fateful crash."

"Dude, you've been in the sun way too long. That's a Japanese girl." Brad said. The UFO fanatic ran past the sign and went to go catch Grey Matter. "Hey! No cuts!" Brad tried to run after him, but tripped on his shoe laces.

Grey Matter jumped onto the staging area for the water slide, where Miko was waiting.

"Jack?!"

"Hey, race you to the bottom!" Grey Matter said. The Galvan went down the slide, being tossed around due to his small stature, but he wasn't screaming. He was eventually tossed out into the main pool. "Now that rocked!" Grey Matter saw Miko exit the slide. He screamed before diving under the water to avoid being hurt. Miko and Grey Matter surfaced.

"Your mom's not gonna like going alien just to get back at a guy that dissed Raf. You're already in the dog house as it is."

"That's why I'm not gonna tell her. In a few minutes I'll be back to normal, and she'll never know. Will she?"

"We gotta towel off, or in your case, napkin off." Miko said as she exited the pool.

The guy that spotted him earlier rose out of the water and had his head behind Grey Matter, who was treading water. His hand came up from below Grey Matter and he grabbed the Galvan.

"There you are my little alien ticket to fame." He said as he looked at the tiny alien in his hand.

"Miko!" Grey Matter shouted. "Miko!"

Miko looked to see Grey Matter in the hand of the UFO-aholic. "Let him go!"

The guy that had captured Grey Matter exited the pool and ran. Miko chased after him. He placed Grey Matter in a cooler and ran off with it.

"Help!" Grey Matter shouted as his captor ran past Raf and June, the later of whom was still in her normal clothes and carried three snow cones.

"Mrs Darby, that guy's got Grey Matter!" Miko shouted. June tossed the snow cones in the trash as she, Raf, and Miko ran after the guy that kidnaped Jack.

"Help!" Grey Matter shouted. His captor ran through a crowd, losing the three people who were running after him. "Let me out!" Grey Matter shouted as the cooler he was in was placed in the trunk of a green sedan.

Miko saw the car drive off. She had a look of dread on her face.

June and Raf reached her as well. "Don't worry, we'll find him, somehow."

Later...

The car owned by the guy that had Grey Matter in his clutches pulled into the driveway of a house that was in a cubist style. The garage door closed as the UFO freak exited his car and entered the house. In hallway that he entered, there were red beams of light. "Security system off." The beams of light disappeared. As he walked down the hall, he left footprints of water, which were cleaned up buy robotic vacuum cleaners. He entered the kitchen and placed the cooler on the granite island. "Lights on." The lights turned on. "Prepare dinner." The microwave turned on.

A cat leaped onto the island and pawed at the cooler.

"No no. This one's all mine."

Meanwhile...

June was driving the Rust Bucket through town.

"Okay, so if he's Grey Matter now, he'll just turn back into Jack, the go Four Arms or something and escape." Arcee said, having been informed of Jack's predicament. "But if you're saying he went alien when he did, Jack should've changed back before he was taken."

"Which means maybe something's wrong with the Omnitrix." Raf spoke up.

"Don't you mean something else is wrong with it?" Miko said. "Well, at least as Grey Matter he's smart."

Back at the UFO hunter's house...

Grey Matter was in a glass cylinder that he tried to get out of, but to no avail.

"Incredible, truly incredible." Grey Matter's captor said. "A perfect miniature alien being."

"Who're you calling miniature?"

"So, which galaxy are you from?"

"Well, if you must know, I'm from this one."

"Oh, a Milky Way native? What planet then?"

"I don't actually know. And if I did I wouldn't tell you!"

"Well, aren't you a feisty little guy."

"You wanna see fiesty, just wait until I get big." Grey Matter glared at his captor. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

"My thoughts exactly." He turned on his iPhone and took a picture of Grey Matter, who was frowning. Grey Matter hung his head in defeat.

Later, at a castle...

"Mr Howell" A man in armor said. He had a gold face mask on. "we've more than had enough of your fuzzy claims and blurry photos of supposed alien space ships." This guy spoke with Howell via skype. "I'm not someone you'd want to annoy."

"I know that. but this one's different, I promise. See." Howell showed the guy he was speaking to pictures that he had taken of Grey Matter. "He's only about three inches tall, and converses fluently in english. Perhaps the organization would consider?"

"I'm sending a car." Howell grinned when he heard this. "You better not be wasting our time, or our resources."

Back at Howell's house...

Grey Matter was still imprisoned in the glass jar. "Great, a thousand people at the water park, and it's the UFO freak that spots me." Grey Matter heard the cat meowing. "Wait, this could work!" Things might not be hopeless. "Here kitty kitty! I taste like chicken." Grey Matter leaned up against the side of the glass. "I taste similar to chicken."

The cat jumped counter and knocked the glass jar off, causing the glass to break and Grey Matter to be freed.

"I'm free!" He saw the robot vacuum approach him. "Uh oh. I'm free." He leaped over the two roomba wannabees and ran away, running out into the hallway with the vacuums chasing him.

Howell exited a different room with his cellphone in hand. "Howell Wainwright, Alien Discoverer. Heh heh! Let the fame and fortune begin!" He entered the room that he had placed Grey Matter in to find that his alien was gone. "No!"

Grey Matter meanwhile was in the kitchen, running from the vacuums. He jumped onto the countertop by leaping up the handles of some drawers.

He turned his head to see a phone and got an idea. He dialed Miko's number and called her. "Come on, pick up!"

He heard Miko's voice. "Hello!"

"Miko, it's me." Grey Matter said.

"You're still Grey Matter?"

"Yeah! The Omnitrix still won't work!"

"Where are you?" Miko asked. Grey Matter picked up the phone and carried it to a window sill.

"There appears to be a mountain peak precisely thirteen point two miles due west at a vertical angle of forty five degrees.

"Brainiac, how about a street?"

"Oh yeah, it's Ripley." Grey Matter touched the window, causing an alarm to go off. A shutter came down and almost crushed Grey Matter, but he jumped out of the way, but accidently slammed into the phone, knocking it off the counter and onto the floor, breaking it. "Oh scrap!" Grey Matter shouted. He saw Howell on the opposite side of the kitchen. Howell slammed his hands down on Grey Matter to trap him, but he climbed up Howell's arms and crawled around his shirt until he made it the back of his collar, where Grey Matter jumped out and onto the floor. He ran to a vent, which he jumped in and thought he would be safe.

Howell opened the vent cover and reached in and grabbed Grey Matter, but Grey matter bit him, causing Howell to let go of the alien.

Meanwhile, in the camper of strangeness...

Raf was looking on the internet for the street name Ripley. "Ripley Lane? Ripley Drive? Ripley Street? We don't have time to check them all out!"

"Do we have a choice?" June asked as she headed down a hill towards a neighborhood.

Back at Howell's house...

Grey Matter was climbing up the ventilation shaft while he was talking to himself. "What's your malfunction? Probably something stupid like the DNA splicing replicator coping a fragmented amino acid sequence." Grey Matter just realized what he just said. "Hmm, so this is what it feels like to be smart." He climbed up to the top of the shaft and made it to a part that was horizontal as opposed to vertical.

"I'll teach you to blow me off." Howell said as he turned up the fan to high.

Grey Matter was tossed around the ducts, tumbling and turning with no way to control where he went. He eventually came to a ceiling vent, which when he grabbed onto the vent and opened it, causing the vent to fling down like a trap door.

"Gotcha!" Howell went to strike Grey Matter with a broom.

"Think again!" Grey Matter jumped off of the vent and onto the island. Howell tried to hit Grey Matter again, but the Galvan jumped onto the cabinet door before climbing into the sink. He went down the drain, where he knew that Howell couldn't reach him.

"He gets away and The Organization comes after me." Howell panicked. "Come on! Think Howell!" He turned on the sink and used it to flush Grey Matter somewhere else.

Grey Matter was sent to an open place. He broke the surface of the water. "Ah! Fresh air!" He looked around and saw that he was in a bowl that was made out of a white glass like material. He was in the toilet. "This is so gross." Grey Matter climbed out and crawled up a counter and found a bottle of hand sanitizer. "Let's see, active ingredients, ethyl alcohol at seventy percent by volume, inactive ingredients, dihydrogen monoxide, Isopropyl Alcohol, Caprylyl Glycol, Glycerin, Isopropyl Myristate, Tocopheryl Acetate, Acrylates/C10-30 Acrylate Crosspolymer, and Aminomethyl Propanol." Grey Matter read off what was in the sanitizer to figure out if anything would harm him. "Nothing that will cause long term damage." Grey Matter rubbed the alcoholic cleaner on his hands, feet, head, and suit to get clean.

Outside the house...

The Rust Bucket pulled up. Miko and June got out.

"I'll take that side, you take the other." June said. "Raf, stay in the camper with Arcee." She and Miko searched the house. June looked through the windows but was sprayed by the sprinklers.

Miko was looking through window to the basement, but a rather large spider came down and spooked her. She and June were running in opposite directions when they ran into each other.

Inside...

Howell was in his 'control room' looking at monitors that showed what the cameras saw. "You can run, but you can't hide."

In the basement, Grey Matter was climbing down the wall and had made his way to the circuit breakers.

Howell saw this through the camera as Grey Matter opened the box and looked at him. Grey Matter smiled while flipping the bird. He then flipped one of the main switches, which caused the power to go out in that house.

Soon...

Grey Matter hid in a potted plant. He looked around and spotted a wood burning stove. "Ah my ticket out." Grey Matter left the potted plant and ran to the stove. He ducked behind a couch when he saw that Howell was in the room.

"Don't make this hard on yourself." Howell slyly said.

Grey Matter went to the fire place and climbed into it, he tried pushing up to get it to open up. He was unsuccessful, so he begrudgingly used the lever, which alerted Howell to his location. Grey Matter climbed up the chimney.

Howell shined a flashlight in the chimney, finding Grey Matter. He switched off the flashlight and lit a match. "I'll smoke you out if I have to."

He lit a fire, which caused smoke to rise up. That caused Grey Matter to start falling. "Ah!" He screamed. He was caught in a fishnet, which is especially confusing, seeing as this guy doesn't own any fish.

While in the Rust Bucket, Arcee spotted what she thought was Howell's car. "June, his car!"

Grey Matter was placed in a glass case. He coughed a bit before looking around at all the sci fi stuff Howell had. "Uh, something tells me you're the type of guy who has a lot of friends." Grey Matter said sarcastically.

"Who needs friends when you'll have the fame I'm about to have?" The door was opened by three guys wearing suits of armor and trenchcoats. One of them had a box that seemed to be made out of blue electrified glass. "They're here."

"Yeah. To break me out." Grey Matter just realized that what he heard was metal footsteps.

"Oh, you don't know how long I've waited to meet you people. It's truly an honor." Howell reached held out his hand.

"Don't trust them! I know these guys!"

June had finished taking off her sneakers and putting on some boots. "Wanna ring the doorbell?" Miko asked

"I'll knock...hard." June kicked down the door.

"Where's the alien?" One of the knights asked. Howell moved out of the way and the knight went over and opened up the case that Grey Matter was in.

"Hands off." Grey Matter was placed in the top of the container before the lid closed.

Apparently, June had kicked the wrong door. There was a growling dog waiting. "Brutus, sit, boy." An old lady on a wheelchair said. The dog leaped at ran at June and then leaped at her, trying to bite her but was June managed to hold the dog back.

Miko looked across the street to see Howell being escorted into a car that resembled the batmobile from the animated series, but was shorter and didn't have the bat features. Howell accidentally dropped his cell phone.

"It's him, the guy who's got Jack!" Miko shouted as the car that the knights were in drove off. "They're getting away!" June had a firm grip on the dog.

"Down, boy." June touched two of her fingers to the dog's forehead, causing the dog to whimper, then fall asleep.

"Nice trick, Mrs D." June placed the now napping dog on the ground gently.

"Come on. We need to find out where they went." June and Miko ran across the street.

With the Forever Knights, Howell, and Grey Matter...

"I have a bad feeling about these guys." Grey Matter had his hands pressed against the side of the cage that he was in.

"That's because you're the one in the cage, and I'm not." Howell said.

They pulled up to a castle.

Back at Howell's house...

"Huh, the old lady and the creep have the same taste in cars." June looked through the window in the garage door. "Go figure.:

MIko saw Howell's phone. When she turned it on, she saw a picture of Grey Matter. "He looks so sad. They can't torment Jack like that, only I can torment Jack like that." Miko went from caring to cruel on a dime. "But I wouldn't go that far."

June took the phone from Miko and looked at the recent calls. "If we can get Raf to run a reverse trace on that number, we should be able to get an address."

"Where'd you learn to be this sneaky? I'm totally starting to appreciate this side if you." Miko said.

At the castle...

Howell was walked to the main hall where the knight he spoke with via skype was sitting at desk.

"A remarkable specimen." The gold faced knight spoke of Grey Matter after he was placed on his desk.

"So, how we doing this? Joint news conference? Hitting the major talk shows? I hear Will Harangue would be willing to do report on something like this."

"We prefer to keep our discoveries private."

"Uh, wh-what are you talking about? We've gotta tell the world about this!"

"Actually, we don't." He's right you know.

Two guys wearing hazmat suits that had the maroon and gold shield on their shoulders along with what appeared to be bones in the shape of an X underneath them walked by Howell, one of them pushing a cart. "Wh-where you taking him?" The hazmat suit wearing guys placed the cage Grey Matter was in on the cart.

"Our scientists have a few tests to run." The leader of this group of knights said.

Grey Matter knew what this meant. "Yeah, but honestly, I've never been very good at tests or quizzes, for that matter."

"I found him. He belongs to me."

"He's ours now. And you just became disposable." Two of the knights grabbed Howell and tossed him down some stairs.

"They can't do this" A door was opened by a knight that wore the same paladin like armor, but this one lacked the trench coat that the two that tossed Howell into this place wore. "to either of us." He body slammed the door, closing it."

Outside...

Miko and June were hiding in a bush to avoid being seen by one of the guards, who carried a weapon known as a laser spear.

"This isn't a house. It's a fortress." Miko stated the obvious. "Are they having a masquerade party here or something?"

"They call themselves the organization, a well-financed secret society dedicated to collecting alien technology. A bit like MECH, but even more discrete. Rumor has it that they're a splinter faction of a larger group called the Forever Knights." June explained.

Inside...

Grey Matter was taken to a table that had a wooden replica of himself on it. One of the surgeons caused the machine above to deploy its tendrils and used them to slice up the wooden Grey Matter. Grey Matter went from worried to terrified. My question is how did they make the wooden model?

"Prepare subject for dissection." The surgeon that operated the dissection machine said.

In the castle plaza...

June and Miko were in a tree.

"Ready?" June asked the strangely silent Miko.

"Not really, but..." Before Miko could finish, June stood up and walked across a limb of a tree, Miko following her. Hey jumped onto the stone walkway, getting the attention of a single knight.

"Hi there." June said. The knight was about to stab June with his spear, but she ducked down and kicked him, knocking him down. The knight dropped the spear and didn't pick it up when he stood up. He engaged June in fist to cuffs. He side kicked June, but she blocked it, suffering no injury thanks to lightweight, yet tough armor that she wore under the sleeves of her tan light coat. She managed to grab onto the knight's leg and fling him against the stone wall. She tried to stomp on his head with her steel toed boots, but the knight got up and fought a surprisingly fair fight.

Miko looked at the spear and got an idea, and at just the right time as it seemed like June was starting to lose the fight. "Hey, metalhead!" The knight turned to face Miko, only to have her beat him knight over the head with the spear, knocking him out. "How was that Mrs Darby?"

"Pretty good Miko." June got up.

Outside of the dissection room...

A surgeon pressed some buttons on a keypad. He was tapped on the shoulder and when he turned to face who was behind him, Howell slammed him in the face with a fire extinguisher. Geez, I know this isn't canon to the official Transformers Prime, but this has got to be at least the fourth time one has been used as a weapon in this timeline.

Inside the dissection room, Grey Matter was strapped onto the table ala James Bond and was about to be cut up. He tried to talk them out of it. "Don't bother with the slice and dice. Trust me. I'm just as grey on the inside as I am on the out."

"Let me assist you." One of the surgeons said. This one had Howell's voice because it was Howell in disguise. Howell hit the other surgeon with the fire extinguisher that he carried and knocked him out. Howell then removed the mask he wore and placed his glasses on.

"What are you doing?" Grey Matter was confused as Howell used the lasers to cut the clamps that held his arms in place.

"Getting you out of here." An elevator opened. Two Forever Knight surgeons came out of it holding jars to hold the bits of Grey Matter(ha double meaning) that they hoped to get. "Back off. Aliens are people, too. Well, sort of." He used the machine to grab the two surgeons and lift them up into the air. Howell undid the latch holding Grey Matter's legs in place. He then grabbed Grey Matter and was gonna make a run for it, but he was knocked down by the surgeon he had hit with the fire extinguisher. Wait, what? Grey Matter ran out of the dissection room. The surgeon was about to grab Grey Matter, but Howell managed to grab his ankles and trip the surgeon. He ran out of the room and into the hall as Howell got into a tussle with the surgeon. He turned to the left and ran down the hall, but slammed into the leg of someone.

"Ow!" June flinched when something hit her. She was about to kick it away, but noticed that Grey Matter had run into her. "Jack! I'm so sorry!"

"Mom!" June bent down and picked up Grey Matter who ran up her arm and stood on her right shoulder.

"Let's save the family reunion for the road." Miko said. They ran for it, Grey Matter holding onto June for dear life.

The forever knights were in high alert. In the plaza, there were some running across the courtyard and on the walkways.

The trio made their way to another interior area, where they spotted the shadows of approaching forever knights. They hid in a room that when the door closed, the lights switched on. But the lights were not on the ceiling, no, they were on the floor in a crop circle like pattern.

"Look at all this alien tech." Grey Matter said.

Meanwhile...

One of the knights ran up to his gold faced master. "Sir, our scientists were found unconscious, and the alien is missing." He informed. "There's also been a security breach at the northeast perimeter."

"Find me that alien."

"Oh, man. These guys have no clue what they've got here." Grey Matter as he looked around at the items these guys had.

"Or maybe they do or soon will." June looked at what she knew was a head. "Or you're right they don't."

"Hey, that's Starscream!" Grey Matter knew who that Head belonged to. "But he's still alive."

"No, that's one of his clones." Miko said. "Bulkhead told me how he offed Starscream twice in the same day."

"We've got to destroy everything." Grey Matter shouted.

A second door opened. Four knights and the leader walked through it. Two of the knights had swords that had a blue glowing blade and shields, two had the laser spear.

The leader spoke. "Spread out and find them." Two more knights entered, they had Howell with them.

Grey Matter thought up a plan. "Miko, grab that pulse hypercore. Mom, the gallinium capacitor." He pointed at the devices he needed. But, they looked at Grey Matter like he was crazy. "It's not Jack talking, it's Grey Matter. Do it!" He shouted. They went and grabbed what Grey Matter needed. June ran and got the gallinium capacitor, which was a purple cube with black lines that was about two thirds of Grey Matter's height. Miko got the pulse hyper core, which was a sphere that was about the same height as the cube and was gold and had five holes on it in an X pattern. Grey Matter jumped off his mom's shoulder and onto the platform where there was a blue piece of technology that looked like the harmony affinity logo from civilization beyond earth. A laser blast hit below where Grey Matter stood.

"They're over here." The knight that shot them shouted. He was tackled by June, who punched him to knock him out. She picked up the spear and started shooting at the knights.

"Get out of here!" Grey Matter shouted.

"What about you?" Miko was concerned.

"If I can get inside the power grid, I can hook the hypercore and capacitor up to it. This is where small comes in handy. Now, go. I'll meet you outside!" Grey Matter told Miko and his mom to get out. "And grab the head if that's possible!"

"Mrs D!" Miko ran up to June. June heard what Grey Matter said and headed for the exit, providing covering fire.

Grey Matter had placed the two devices into what he was going to modify before he climbed in. He slid the capacitor into a slot, causing the circuits to light up. He disconnected a cable and attached one end of it to the core's center socket.

Orange lightning came out of the top of the now modified device. "That reaction will decimate the mansion and everything in it. Everyone out except you, Howell." He grabbed the collar of Howell's Jacket. "You and your little alien have been nothing but trouble." He tossed Howell to the ground.

The Omnitrix dial on Grey Matter's back started to blink red. This happened as he was climbing out. He was finally reverted to being Jack. "Oh, man. Just when I didn't want you to work." Jack had his hand stuck in the machine.

"Huh? Where'd you come from?" Howell asked as he got back up.

"I'll tell you later." Jack said. "But right now, can you give me a hand?" Howell helped Jack get his hand unstuck. "Thanks. Look, a friend told me we've gotta get out of here." Jack told his former captor. He and Howell ran out of the building as fast as they could.

June and Miko were waiting outside the castle. They saw Jack and Howell exit the building just before it got sucked in on itself. The building was sucked up, foundation and all by a short lived black hole that disappeared seconds after it served its purpose.

"Anyone see where that little alien went?" Howell asked.

"Nope." Jack lied. Jack looked at Miko.

"Not a clue."

"Well, I am done with anything alien." Howell stormed off.

Later in the Rust Bucket...

"Feels good to be big again." Jack stretched out on the seat that was near the table.

"Hah, big? Get real, Jack, you're the third smallest member of Team Prime."

"Don't make me go XLR8 on you." Jack slammed his fist on the table, which caused red lighting to come from the Omnitrix. "I didn't do anything!" Jack panicked.

"We so have to get that fixed." Arcee said.

Where the castle was...

The guy that led these Forever Knights was in the car that he used as his mode of transportation. "Find out all there is to know about these people." He looked at a screen that had pictures of Jack, Miko, and June along with basic data on them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter end.
> 
> A.N. And here's the second chapter with the forever knights as the enemies. But these weren't the same group that joined forces with starscream, those were the ones that funded MECH and Animo. These are one of the subgroups.
> 
> You see, in Ben 10, there were five groups of forever knights that had different goals. The ones that were seen briefly in Devolve and as the main enemy in Red Flash were the same. Their goal is to obtain information relating to alien biology, but they fund the efforts of others, meaning they were giving MECH the resources it needed to operate, even before Silas found out about the Cybertronians.


	19. Ghostfreaky Friday

In a park...

A boy was getting a frisbee out of a tree. When he grabbed it and looked down, he grabbed onto the limb of the tree. "Help!" He shouted. "I can't get down!"

"Don't worry! We'll come up and get you!" Arcee, in her robot mode shouted, but she was about as tall as Jack, who stood next to her.

"We?" Jack crossed his arms.

"Hey, you're the one with all the alien heroes at your fingertips." Arcee said.

Jack activated the Omnitrix. which was back to how it looked before it broke and transformed into Big Chill.

Big Chill flew up and went to rescue the kid.

"It's okay, I'm here to help get you down." Big Chill assured the boy when he saw that he was scared of his current form.

"I don't want to get down." A voice that Jack recognized said. "I want out!" The 'boy' faced Jack and now had an Eye similar to GhostFreak's. The tree limb that the 'boy' held onto turned into Ghostfreak's arm as it tried to reach for him.

"Leave me alone!" Big Chill was afraid.

"You can't hide from me." The trunk of the tree turned into Ghostfreak's body. "Always the hero." Ghostfreak grabbed Big Chill as he tried to fly away, but was caught. "Such a waste of potential." Ghostfreak brought Big Chill to his face. "You want to be helpful? Get me out!"

Outside the Nightmare...

Jack was screaming as he fell out of the bunk bed. "Oh thank god. It was only a nightmare." Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't woken anyone up. Normal, he would've at least woke up Miko, who was a light sleeper, but she had gone back to base to see how Bulkhead was doing.

Jack climbed back into the bed after seeing that it was still dark out.

Morning...

The Rust Bucket drove under a covered bridge. Jack was sitting by the window, trying to keep his eyes open.

"Jack. Jack." His mom tried to get his attention.

"Earth to Darby!" Raf hit his head with a map like piece of paper that was folded up.

"Huh?" Jack snapped out of his near sleep state.

"Clean the wax out of your ears. will y'ah?" Arcee, who was sitting next to Raf with her ID mask on said in a joking manner. "You okay partner?" She asked.

"Yeah, I guess I'm still weirded out by that Big Chill nightmare." Jack said. "And the fact that it was a Big Chill nightmare."

"Well. what do you expect when you guzzle down four cups of that 'Miko Juice' that she made." Raf said.

June shuddered. "It's like if coffee and nightmares had a baby."

"So Raf, why do you wanna go to this school?" Jack asked after he grabbed the flier that Raf held, which was for a place called Bancroft. "From the looks of it, it looks like it's full of nothing but snobs and posers."

"Jack, Bancroft Academy is one of the most prestigious schools in the country." Raf said.

"Yeah, but for snobs and posers."

"Jack, this is not directed at you, but please, don't do anything that'll embarrass me on my tour of the campus."

"Don't worry about it, I'll make sure nothing weird happens." Jack said.

"Then why doesn't that make me feel better." Raf frowned.

Later...

They arrived at the Academy and were being shown around by a girl who had black hair that was dyed blue, and wore a uniform that had a red button up coat and a black skirt.

"And recently, Bancroft Academy was awarded the prestigious, solid gold mincof trophy for top rated prepschool on the east coast, so you can see why we're very picky about who we admit." The girl, named Tiffany said with what one could only assume was a british accent. "So many delude themselves into thinking that they are Bancroft material." Tiffany said, placing emphasis on the word 'they' as if to use it as an insult. "It's so sad."

"Well, I have a 4.2 GPA, I'm president of my school's computer club, treasurer of the science society, and I'm part of my school's robotics club."

"How nice for you." Tiffany said, grinning awkwardly. Jack chuckled after seeing Raf embarrass himself.

Jack heard Ghostfreak call out his name. "Jack." He looked around and didn't see anything.

"Do you have a question?" Tiffany asked.

"Yeah, why are there so many kids here during vacation?" Jack asked.

"Attending our prestigious summer school session."

"Now there's two things I never I'd here in the same sentence." Sadie said.

"What?" Jack asked

"'Prestigious' and 'summer school'."

As they walked through a shaded area, Jack's shadow for a split second looked exactly like Ghostfreak and heard breathing. Jack back tracked when he heard the breathing. He rubbed his eyes and saw that there was nothing there but his own shadow.

"Mom's right, I just need a little sleep." Jack said as he ran to catch up with the group.

They entered the science lab and saw all the gear they had, which was impressive by human standards.

"And this is our science lab." Tiffany said.

There was one piece of technology that caught Raf's attention. "Woah! An electron microscope!" Raf had a face of pure glee. When he saw tiffany's face, his face went to a more neutral expression.

As Jack looked around the room, one of the bunsen burners ignited spontaneously and boiled the substance in the beaker it was in. Ghostfreak's eye was in it. "Let me out!"

Jack hit the beaker off of the stand. "Leave me alone!"

"Heh heh heh!" Raf awkwardly laughed. "That's my second best friend, always joking." All of the bunsen burners ignited and boiled the chemicals that were in the beakers that they were below, causing the beakers to explode.

"Jack, what're you doing?" June asked.

"It wasn't me, it was Ghostfreak!" The fire alarm went off, causing the sprinklers to drench Tiffany.

"This is not going to look good on your application." Tiffany said. "Bancroft is a no freaks zone.

Speaking of which...

In the trophy room...

The circus freak trio, Thumbskull, Acid Breath, and Fight Wig were looking at the trophy case.

"See what I mean." Acid Breath said. "Easy money." Acid Breath and his cohorts approached the case. A door opened and one of the security guards entered the room.

"Hey! This room is off limits without an escort."

Outside...

"I am so sorry about my friend." Raf apologized. "Actually, I don't even think he's the real Jack. I think his mom brought the wrong guy with us."

"At B.A. it is just as important who you are as what you've done. You know, if you're a person who associates himself with quality individuals." Tiffany walked away.

Raf had an angry look on his face. He approached Jack about to punch him saying: "Jackson Darby, I'm gonna-" But the sound of some glass breaking caused the four of them to look towards the gymnasium. Jack, flinched before he realized that something was happening.

"I'd better check that out." Jack ran to the gymnasium, finding a broken trophy case. He was scratching his head, trying to think of what could do this, but that question answered itself when he heard a familiar laugh. Jack entered the gym to find three of his earlier foes, Thumbskull, Frightwig, and Acid Breath laughing a security guard that they had hung up near the ceiling and was tied up by a banner. "You again? And I thought I was done with repeats." Jack got the attention of the freaks.

"Hey! It's that guy who took down Zombozo!

"It was a sweet gig working for that clown, then you had to ruin it!" Frightwig expressed her anger.

Jack activated the Omnitrix by pressing down the green button. He didn't have many options, so he picked the one he knew the best, Heatblast. "A little Heatblast action should light a fire under you freaks!" Jack transformed, but not into Heatblast, he got... "Ghostfreak? I didn't pick you."

"Nice trick kid." Acid Breath said as Thumbskull tore off a section of the bleachers. Thumbskull threw the brown wooden seats at Ghostfreak, who phased through them and was in the ground. Acid Breath spat a stream of Acid at the pile of wooden shrapnel, turning it into a puddle of goo. "But we ain't scared of no ghosts." The trio laughed. Apparently they forgot how ghosts work.

Ghostfreak rose out of the ground. "You should be." He dove into the ground as he was spat at by Acid Breath.

June, Raf, and Sadie entered the gym. "It's those circus freaks!" June shouted.

Ghostfreak rose out of the floor, lifting the mat Acid Breath was on as well. He slammed it into the wall. Thumbskull tried to smash him, but Ghostfreak phased through the strongman. Ghostfreak, who was invisible flew up from behind him and stuck his arms in Thumbskull's skull, causing him great pain and that caused him to collapse.

Fight Wig tried to strike him with her hair, but even though it wrapped around Ghostfreak's arm, he used that to his advantage, pulling her to the floor and slamming her cranium against the wooden surface. He grabbed the back of her head and slammed her down a few more times.

"Something's wrong. I've never seen Jack so vicious!" Sadie shouted.

Raf didn't like how this looked. "You're trashing the whole gym!" He shouted. "Are you trying to ruin my chances of getting accepted here?! Jack, answer me!"

Ghostfreak turned to face Raf. "Jack's not here." He sinisterly spoke. Ghostfreak floated over to Raf before just simply saying "Boo!" Raf was startled and fell over, Ghostfreak laughing at him. Thumbskull tossed a punching bag at Ghostfreak, which caused him to be sent hurling at the wall. Thumbskull and Fight Wig ran out of the gym, Thumbskull grabbing Acid Breath before vacating the building. "Guess they didn't learn their lesson." Ghostfreak said as he phased through the punching bag and followed the freaks.

As the freaks ran across the commons area and away from Ghostfreak, the Omnitrix began to time out. "No! I'm not going back in there!" Ghostfreak expressed his disgust.

In a flash of red light, Jack was back. "Phew! Man, glad to be rid of that freak."

"Aw. And I thought we were close." Ghostfreak said. Jack turned and saw that Ghostfreak was outside of the Omnitrix, the only difference being the escaped Ghostfreak didn't have an Omnitrix dial. "So nice to finally meet you." Ghostfreak approached Jack.

"This can't be happening!" Jack tried to reason with what he was seeing. "You can't be you! I'm you!"

"I was never you!" Ghostfreak explained. "An ectonurite's consciousness can exist even in a few strands of DNA. When the sample for the Omnitrix was taken, I was trapped inside. But now, I can reveal my true self!" Four large black claws sprouted from Ghostfreak's fingers. Black and white tentacles burst out of the 'skin' of his chest. He used his claws to rip off the skin, revealing his true face, which was a skull that resembled an upside down anchor and had a single black eye with a purple pupil. His skin was a light purple.

"And I thought you were ugly before." Jack said in horror as he saw the alien ghost that was in front of him. "What do you want?"

"I need the power of the Omnitrix to make me whole again." Ghostfreak approached Jack. "And I can only do that by taking over your body." Ghostfreak approached Jack, who backed out of the shady area. "Now, let's see how you like being trapped inside someone else." Ghostfreak reached for Jack, but found that when sunlight touched him, it burnt his skin, as if he was a vampire.

Jack turned and ran, not knowing that Sadie was right behind him.

"Jack. Take it easy." Arcee held onto Jack's shoulders. "You look like you've just seen a ghost." Jack looked back and saw that Ghostfreak was gone, or so he thought.

A blonde haired male student was playing the tuba. Ghostfreak rose out of the ground and approached him. The tuba player thought he heard something and turned his head, only to find that it was probably nothing. Ghostfreak came down from the ceiling and possessed him, making him squirm. Ghostfreak in his host body stepped into the sunlight and found that while he was in a human body, he couldn't be burned by the sun.

"I guess these frail human bodies are good for something after all." Ghostfreak rasped, grinning evilly.

He walked off to find something.

Inside...

Jack was looking through closets in the dorms. He was scared.

"Ghostfreak's gotta be somewhere." Jack said as he closed the door and moved onto the next one.

"He's looking for himself?" Sadie scratched her head in confusion.

"He said he's been alive inside the Omnitrix the whole time, just trying to get out." Jack had a realization. "Maybe that's the reason why I always felt wierd when I was Ghostfreak."

"Look Jack, it doesn't matter what's going on. We'll always be here for you." June assured her son.

"Even if you do have a leak in your brain pan." Raf joked.

"I'm not a wakko!" Jack spat out. "Ghostfreak is loose!"

"Okay, the butter hasn't slipped off your noodle." Raf stated. Jack turned around and walked down the hall. "But how are you planning on bringing him down once we find him?" That alien's pretty tough."

Jack walked by a window and remembered something. "Sunlight!" Jack shouted. "He couldn't go into the sun! He had to stay in the shadows."

"What? Like a vampire?" Sadie once again was confused. "I don't recall you having that problem when you went Ghostfreak."

"I think that's why he needs me." Jack put two and two together. "He said that when we're joined, he'll be whole again. Which means we have to find him before sunset!"

"I think I might have a thing or two from my Plumber days that might help."

In an abandoned farm house...

"How tough could it be to rob a school?" Fright Wig was berating Acid Breath for his failed plan. "It'll be easy money."

The front door opened and they saw the silhouette that kinda resembled Jack.

"It's that kid with the watch!" Acid Breath and his partners in crime were scared. "Let's get out of here!"

"Attention freaks. You are now my minions." The silhouette said with Ghostfreak's voice. "Obey my commands or feel my wrath!" The shadow stepped into the light to show that it was the tuba player from earlier that had been possessed by Ghostfreak.

It took the trio a second or two to realize that they had been tricked. They started laughing at what they thought was the teen that beat them, twice.

"I don't think you realize who you're dealing with." Ghostfreak said. He left the body that he possessed and showed the Circus Freak Trio his true form. They student he possessed ran off. "I am not that kid." Ghostfreak approached the trio. "But serve me, and I promise, you will never see him again."

"What if we don't wanna help you?" Thumbskull questioned. Ghostfreak grinned, though it looked like a frown.

"I was hoping you'd ask." Ghostfreak possessed Thumbskull.

"What's happening to me?" Thumbskull groaned as he stumbled forward under Ghostfreak's influence. He floated up and was slammed against the ceiling. He was then slammed into a bookcase. He was flying through the air when Ghostfreak left his body and Thumbskull was slammed into the wall.

"Any other question?" Ghostfreak asked.

Fright Wig and Acid Breath looked at each other. "When do we start?" The acid spewing villain asked.

Bancroft Academy, Night...

June was using a scanner to try to pick up Ghostfreak. Raf was starting to complain.

"We've been at this for hours." Raf moaned. "If Ghostfreak trashes the campus I'll never get admitted."

June, Jack, and Arcee(Still disguised as Sadie) turned to face Raf with looks of shock. They were unable to believe that Raf would care more about getting into a school.

Raf saw the look his friends were giving him. "Not that it isn't as important as saving all these innocent people.

They approached an archway that had a statue inside of it.

"I'm picking up some trace spectral activity from around that corner." June said.

"Okay, let me get my game face on." Jack activated the Omnitrix. "Scrap, not much to work with." Jack selected Four Arms, which was the alien he was transformed into. "Hey, I meant to do that!"

They heard the screaming of girls and went to see what was going on. A bunch of students were running out of one of the buildings. They were being chased by the circus freak trio. Fright Wig had Tiffany.

"I haven't got time for you freaks, so the party's over!" Four Arms shouted.

"You got it all wrong muscle head." Fright Wig taunted. "It's just about to really get rolling!"

"And, it's a surprise party." G-Acid Breath, who was possessed by Ghostfreak said. Ghostfreak left his host body. "Hello, Jack, have you been working out?"

"Ghostfreak!" Four Arms shouted at his escaped transformation.

"Uh!" Raf expressed his disgust "Major horror show."

"You ain't seen nothing yet." Ghostfreak turned intangible and tried to merge with Four Arms, only to find that he only could cover Four Arms' body. Four Arms managed to pull Jack off. "Ah, it seems I cannot merge with your alien forms. No matter, time is on my side. You will be human again soon enough." He hissed.

"But we have a surprise of our own." June fired a gun that emitted a beam of light that burnt Ghostfreak.

"Daylight at night!" Ghostfreak held his smoking arm.

"Sun gun. Projects a beam as bright as sunlight." June pointed the Sun gun at the alien ghost that tried to possess her son.

"Clever," June fired the Sun gun, but Ghostfreak dodged it. "but not clever enough." Ghostfreak went into the body of Thumbskull. "As long as I am in a host body, your weapon has no effect."

Thumbskull, under the control of Ghostfreak ran up and punched Four Arms square in the jaw, sending him back. G-Thumbskull charged at Four Arms, but the Tetramand got out of the way, causing the possessed sideshow attraction to ram into a statue. In the cloud of dust, Thumbskull looked around for Four Arms, who was standing behind him. Four Arms grabbed him and body slammed him into the ground. Four Arms, while still holding onto G-Thumbskull, charged through a tree and then another statue before throwing him to the feet of Acid Breath.

Acid Breath exhaled and tried to get Four Arms with a stream of acid, but Four Arms managed to run away from it. He hid behind a brick flower display which was melted.

G-Thumbskull stood up before Acid Breath hopped on his shoulders. Four Arms elbowed jumped at them and hit Acid Breath off with his arm. G-Thumbskull charged at Four Arms, but was flipped over and thrown at the stone stairs that the freaks scared the students out of. Ghostfreak left Thumbskull and went into Fright Wig, who then tossed Tiffany to the side.

She would've been seriously injured or even killed if Raf hadn't tried to catch her, or more accurately broke her fall when she collided with him.

"Heh heh." Raf tried to lighten the mood. "So, should I turn in my admissions application to the main office, or just give it to you?" He asked.

G-Fright Wig slid between Four Arms' legs, grabbing his ankles and knocking him to the ground. G-Fright Wig tossed Four Arms onto a patch of grass. He looked up with a scowl and saw G-Fright Wig doing front flips and that she was heading in his direction. On the last flip, she whipped him, but Four Arms blocked that attack and the others. Four Arms grabbed onto G-Fright Wig's hair and wrapped it around her, restraining her.

"Go ahead and play musical freaks all you want." Four Arms said. He cracked his knuckles. "I'll just kick their butts."

"You're right." Ghostfreak poked his head out of Fright Wig. "Maybe I need a new partner." He left Fright Wig. "Someone more interesting for you to battle." He looked at June, who was helping Tiffany recover from her fall.

"Mom, look out!" Four Arms shouted.

"Aah!" June screamed as Ghostfreak possessed her.

"Heh heh heh heh heh. Too late. Let's have some fun." Ghostfreak said as he assumed control over June's body. Her eyes were now light purple and had black pupils. Jack looked at his mom's possessed body with horror.

G-June jumped at Four Arms, trying to strike him, but Four Arms got out of the way and avoided some of her kicks, but just let her strike him for others. Four Arms tossed G-June against a brick wall, which caused Ghostfreak to lose control of June.

"Uhg!" June groaned. She looked up to see Four Arms approach her with a look of anger. "Jack, what are you doing?" Ghostfreak regained control of June and jumped up, kicking Four Arms and landing on a wall, climbing up it.

Four Arms climbed after her. Raf and Sadie looked to the left of the wall and saw a ladder that was being used by some painters.

G-June climbed up, with Four Arms right behind her. When he got up, Four Arms approached G-June, but the Omnitrix started to beep.

"Ah, music to my ears!" G-June hissed.

Four Arms went back to being Jack. He backed away as his possessed mother approached him.

"Jack!" Sadie tossed Jack the Sun gun. Jack pointed it at G-June.

"Come on out, so I can fry your pale aft!" Jack shouted.

"I have another idea. Drop the weapon, and I'll meld with you and take over the world!" G-June bargained.

"Fat chance." Jack rejected Ghostfreak's deal.

G-June jumped, and after twirling around, landed near the edge. "Then you'd better hope your mother knows how to fly. It's your choice, hero." G-June took one step back.

"Ooh. Jack, what-what's happening?" June was confused as Ghostfreak let her have control of her body briefly.

The Circus Freaks jumped up and landed to the left of Jack.

Ghostfreak regained control of June. "Next sound you hear will be your mother's screams as she takes a big dive!" G-June laughed evilly.

Jack dropped the gun.

"Aah! Aah!" June screamed as Ghostfreak left her body.

"Eliminate them all!" Ghostfreak commanded the trio. The Freaks went to attack Sadie, June, and Raf.

"We had a deal, you halloween reject!" Jack glared at his escaped transformation.

"You had a deal with me, not them." Ghostfreak corrected. He saw that Jack was trying to grab the Sun gun and grabbed him, sticking his intangible claws into him.

"Aah, aah!" Jack screamed as Ghostfreak began merging with him. Green energy came from the Omnitrix.

"Jack, no!" June screamed while she was being held by Thumbskull. Jack saw that the Omnitrix had recharged. Jack tried to transform. Ghostfreak saw this and sped up the combination, possessing Jack. After a flash of green light cleared, only Ghostfreak was present.

"Together again, just like old- ah!" Ghostfreak tried to gloat, but found that he had a frog in his throat. He coughed before spitting out, Grey Matter?

"That's enough to make me gag, too." Grey Matter joked. He jumped onto Frightwig's hair, causing her to flair her arms around. She dropped Raf as she used her hair to get Grey Matter off her head."

"Get him, you fools!" Ghostfreak ordered. Thumbskull dropped June while Acid Breath let go of Sadie's arms. Thumbskull grabbed Fright Wig and shook her, getting Grey Matter out of her hair. Grey Matter jumped onto Thumbskull's back.

"Where'd that little pipsqueak go?" Thumbskull was unaware that Grey Matter was on him. Fright Wig whipped Thumbskull, knocking him down. Grey Matter jumped onto Acid Breath's face, which Fright Wig whipped. He then jumped onto Fright Wig's face. Thumbskull tossed a fistful of gravel at her, which Grey Matter avoided, but Fight Wig was knocked over.

Thumbskull was about to step one Grey Matter. Acid Breath exhaled as Thumbskull stomped down. The acidic breath burnt his foot. Grey Matter ran away and hid in a crack in a wall.

"Get them!" Ghostfreak ordered as he went after Grey Matter. The Circus Freak Trio pursued June, Raf, and Sadie as they went down. Ghostfreak arrived in the interior of a bell room. "You can run, but you can't hide!"

June, Raf, and Sadie were hiding in a kitchen. "Spread out. They're in here somewhere." Acid Breath ordered.

Sadie and Raf were hiding behind an oven. They saw Thumbskull walk to a fridge and ate some of the food that was in it. When he closed the door, he saw the two of them in the reflection of the door.

Thumbskull charged at Sadie, who ran, since she didn't want to reveal her existence to these villains. Sadie came to a door that she opened to find that it was just a pantry. She got an idea. She let Thumbskull ram into her. She then kicked him into the pantry, and got out before he could get up. Sadie then shut the door and locked it.

June was hiding behind a shelf with boxes of baking mix on it. Acid Breath walked up to the shelf and tossed it away.

"It's just you and me lady."

"Bring it on, stink breath." June grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at Acid Breath as he tried to spew his vile stench at her, that caused him to gag. June hit him over the head with a frying pan. That seemed to incapacitate him. Hold on, this is now the fifth time a fire extinguisher has been used as a weapon.

Frightwig grabbed June, but it was Raf who beat her by knocking over a vat of grease, which spilled all over the floor. Fright Wig slipped on it and hit her head on the side of the barrel. Raf gave June, who Fright Wig had dropped, a thumbs up.

In the bell tower...

Ghostfreak was still looking for Jack, who was still Grey Matter and was hiding behind a couple of paint cans.

Grey Matter looked to the right and saw Ghostfreak. He then looked to the left and saw Ghostfreak phase his head through a curtain. Grey Matter went to the other side of the paint cans! But something bad happened. The Omnitrix began to time out. "Uh-oh." Grey Matter panicked as the dial on his back blinked red. In a flash of red light, Grey Matter was back to being Jack. Ghostfreak saw the flash of light. "Aw, man, not now!" Jack shouted. Ghostfreak lunged at him, but Jack avoided him. Jack then jumped off a balcony, falling a good fifty feet before landing on a wooden platform. He broke his fall by rolling. Ghostfreak passed the platform he was on before rising up through the floor. Jack got up and ran. As he ran across a catwalk, Ghostfreak was clawing at him. Jack bumped into a tool chest and knocked it over. He grabbed a hammer and tried to hit Ghostfreak with it, but the Ectonurite turned intangible and passed through it. Ghostfreak grabbed the hammer with his tentacles a flung Jack at a wooden beam, which he held onto and managed to pull himself up onto.

"Think of it, Jack. With the power of the watch and your dna, I will be unstoppable!" As Ghostfreak monologue, Jack noticed that it was day time.

Jack swung over and pulled down one of the curtains. "Time you saw the light, freak!" The sunlight started to burn Ghostfreak.

"Aah! Aah! Aah!" Ghostfreak screamed in agony. His skin was seemed like it was boiling. Ghostfreak tried to get out of the light, but Jack saw this and pulled down the other curtain. Ghostfreak turned black and disitigrated, and I'm sure he'll never bother anyone again.

"Whew!" Jack collapsed in front of the window that caused Ghostfreak's destruction. "Boy am I glad the sun decided to come into work early today."

"Oh it didn't rise early." A man that Jack recognized stated.

"Paradox?" Jack looked around for the time traveler, only to see him sitting a few feet from him. "How'd you get here? And what do you mean it didn't rise early?"

"What I'm saying Jack Tennyson is that I brought you and the transformation formerly known as Ghostfreak a few hours into the future so that you would have a chance of defeating him."

"Oh, wait, you got my last name wrong."

"I did? I'm terribly sorry, time travel makes a great deal of things more difficult. And that does include last names." Paradox looked at Jack's left wrist. "As does expectations. I honestly believed that you wouldn't break the Omnitrix for another year, but I guess I was wrong."

"Please don't rub it in." Jack asked the time traveler.

"Very well. Although, in my defense, I wasn't trying to belittle you. You just seemed so responsible that- ooh, almost revealed too much there again. Now, I believe you have a failed college visit to see the end of."

"How do you know?"

"Please Jack, it doesn't take an immortal time traveler to know that Rafael is not going to attend college here."

Later...

The Circus Freaks were being hauled off by the police for the second time.

Tiffany looked at the freaks and then at the group that showed up when the trio did. She huffed in disgust. "Humph!"

"Something tells me i am so not getting into Bancroft academy." Paradox chuckled. He stopped doing that when he saw that June was glaring at him.

"You don't need you need this stupid school to prove you're smart. Do you think any of these eggheads could have brought down those circus freaks?"

"You really think so?" Raf asked. He saw that Jack nodded. "Thanks, Jack."

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. So yeah, it sucks to be Jack right about now. First, he was knocked down to ten and now with Ghostfreak gone, he now just has nine.


	20. Jackwolf

Navajo Reservation, New Mexico, around sunset...

June was speaking with a native american man who wore a green vest, a tannish yellow polo shirt and a pair of blue jeans. He appeared to be in his late fifties or early sixties and had long, grey hair. His name was Wes Green

"Navajo legend says the web of the dream catch protects the dreamer by holding the nightmares in the center, while good dreams travel down the feathers to bless the person's sleep." June and Wes walked down the market.

Raf was yawning, he as he didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

"Speaking of sleeping." Sadie said as she and Jack passed by Raf. She pushed the twelve and three quarters year old human down the dirt road.

"I know that Mr Green is one of your grandfather's old friends," Raf stated. "but could this trip get anymore-" Raf saw a girl that was about his age that was wearing a blue dress with red stripes that had a white outline. She had long black hair and brown eyes. When Raf saw her, he couldn't help but stare and say this one word: "cooler."

Raf ran up to June and Wes. "That's my granddaughter Kai." He explained to June.

"Wes, last time I saw her she was barely walking. Now look at her."

Three men were beating a drum while another chanted. She's performing a ceremonial Navajo dance.

"You know, I was hoping to see one of those before the summer ended." Raf said, although it was clear he was lying. Jack and Sadie walked up and stood beside him.

"Since when have you been interested in native american spiritual dance?" Sadie asked.

"Only since forever 'Cee. It rocks." The dance finished and the audience that Kai had applauded her. Kai then walked towards the group. Raf was fixing his hair to make himself look more presentable. Jack and Sadie meanwhile just rolled their eyes.

Sadie saw black clouds suddenly arrive. "Are you sure you're not doing a rain dance.

"Positive. Wait, why would you think otherwise?" Kai asked. It started raining as a bolt of purple lightning struck one of the buildings.

"Take cover in the Rust Bucket." June said as she and Wes got Sadie and Kai into the camper. Jack was running to get Raf when a bolt of lightning struck ten feet to the right of him as he looked at Kai. In the cloud of smoke, there was a wolf like figure that had purple glowing eyes and seemed to be humanoid, but stood on all fours. Wes looked upon the creature with a look of horror.

Raf turned to face the monster. "Anyone want to ask that thing for an umbrella?"

The creature stood up and seemed like it was about to attack Raf, but it turned around and ran when it saw Wes and Jack join Raf.

The was a crashing sound heard and a few seconds later, a wave of water was going down the rows of buildings.

"Flash flood!" Wes shouted. Sadie and Kai were climbing up the ladder of the Rust Bucket. Wes, June, Jack, and Raf managed to climb up on the tops of some of the buildings as the floodwaters carried off whatever wasn't attached to the ground.

Kai was trying to get up the ladder, but the flood waters were too strong. She was ripped off the ladder and carried off. "Help!" She screamed.

"Going Ripjaws!" Jack tried to transform, but found that he couldn't.

"I got it!" Raf shouted. He ran along the tops of the buildings to try and save Kai.

He jumped on a barrel and used that to catch up to Kai. When he was within an arm's reach of her, he held out his hand. "Grab my hand!" Kai grabbed on and got on the barrel that Raf was using as a makeshift boat. They thought they were safe, but they gasped and had expressions of dread when they saw a wooden crate collide with the side of one of the builds, after which, the crate was just a pile of splinters.

"Scrap!" Jack shouted. He ran over to a section of the now flooded road that had a wooden platform over it. He carefully yet quickly walked over across it and hung down, using his legs to hold on. He grabbed Kai and Raf, who were lifted off the barrel they were on and were safe.

"Thank you, but can I-"

"Repay me? Sorry, but I'm one of those look first, leap second kind of guys."

"That's nice, but what I meant was, can I have my hand back now?" Raf noticed that he was still holding onto Kai's hand. Raf blushed as he let go of Kai's hand. Jack rolled his eyes as he helped the two of them up.

In the distance, the wolf creature was removing a satellite dish from a radio tower.

Later, in a museum...

"I never thought I'd ever see one." Wes said.

"One of what?" Sadie asked.

"A Yenaldooshi. A Navajo werewolf, but I thought they only existed in folklore." Wes exposited as the group looked at a tapestry that showed a creature similar to the one that attacked. "Their presence is a sign of pure evil." Wes held a rifle that he had slung over his back. "I must find it, then tranquilize it and bag it."

"I'll go with you." Jack offered.

"Count me in!" Raf wanted to come too.

"Me too grandpa."

"You know only braves can be trackers, Kai." Wes said to his granddaughter.

"Who made up that rule?" Sadie asked. "Where I come from, it doesn't matter what gender you are."

"It has been that way for centuries. Times change, but traditions don't." Wes explained. "Sadie, within you beats the heart of a warrior, but as for being a hunter, there are demons that haunt your past. You, Kai, and June shall remain here."

Kai hung her head in sadness. "But-" Sadie was about to tell Wes that he was wrong, but June stopped her.

"Their land, their rules Sadie." June said.

Jack and Wes headed out. Raf however saw that Kai was depressed. "Kai seems bummed." Raf said to Sadie. "Maybe I could cheer her up."

"Since when do you care about what girls care about?" Sadie came to a conclusion. "Unless you like her."

"What?"

"That's it!" Sadie leaned in closer to Raf and pointed at him. "As Miko would say: You so like like her!"

"No way!" Raf shook his head.

"Raf's got a crush! Raf's got a crush!"

"I do not!"

"Oh yes you do!"

"Oh no I don't!" Raf yelled. "But, if you're hanging around Kai or something, could you do me a favor?"

"And what would that be?"

"Sorta let it slip how cool I am. You know, how you're lucky to have me for a friend."

"So you want me to tell half lies?" Sadie wasn't following this.

"Well, when you put it that way, sure!" Raf walked off to join Jack and Wes.

Later in a canyon...

Wes had found a bit of fur that belong to the Yenaldooshi. He spoke to Jack. "Ah, this reminds me of the time your grandfather and I went after that yeti in the himalayas this one time."

"Hold on, you're a plumber?" Raf asked.

"Was." Wes answered. He saw the tracks that were left by the Yenaldooshi. "It appears the prints lead this way." He pointed at the set of footprints.

Back at the village...

June, Kai, and Sadie sat on top of one of the buildings.

"So, I guess my son's friend save you." June said.

"Yeah. He seems okay." Kai replied.

"By okay, do you mean on a geek meter, he'd only be an eight out of ten?" Sadie joked.

They heard the howling of a wolf. Tonight was a full moon.

Back with the guys...

They came to a mesa that they looked over the side of. They saw the Yenaldooshi ripping appart electronic equipment.

Wes took aim at the beast, but when he pulled the trigger, the Yenaldooshi heard that and was able to dodge the dart. It ran at the trio, Wes firing another dart, which it dodged as well. The Yenaldooshi jumped over them and landed on a large rock. In the moonlight, they saw its fur, which was black on its head and tail and dark grey on its arms, legs and torso. It knocked the trio off the messa, Raf and Wes on one side, Jack was knocked off the other side.

"Time to go pure stinkfly!" Jack shouted as he activated the Omnitrix and transformed. But instead of Stinkfly, he got Diamondhead. "Aw man!" He went over and grabbed Raf and Wes. Diamondhead formed chain of crystal and used that as a grappling hook to grab onto the sandstone arch that they were falling off of. He lowered Raf and Wes down safely before retracting the chain in so that he could get back up.

While on the ground, Raf saw how Wes reacted to Jack transforming. "Yeah, I know." Raf said after catching his breath. "We have some explaining to do."

Later...

The Yenaldooshi was climbing up a mesa. It ran when it reached the top, but seconds later, it was grabbed by chains of crystal. Diamondhead rose out of the ground.

"Tag, and you're it fang face!" Diamondhead taunted the wolf like creature that he had captured. It bit him, which surprisingly, hurt the normally nearly impossible to puncture Diamondhead. "Oh, so you want to fight dirty?" Diamondhead went back underground, bringing the Yenaldooshi with him. He traveled underground, hitting the werewolf against several large rocks. "Going up!" Diamondhead tossed the Yenaldooshi to the surface. Right after Diamondhead emerged, the Omnitrix dial started beeping. "Not now!" In a flash of red light, Diamondhead was reverted back into Jack."Uh, that fang face nick name, I meant it in a good way." Jack sheepishly spoke. The Yenaldooshi jumped at Jack and tried to claw him, but Jack got out of the way and ran. The werewolf gave chase. Jack turned around to see the Yenaldooshi claw at him. Jack raised his left arm to black the slash. One of the Yenaldooshi's three black claws hit the Omnitrix, causing its dial and tubing along the side to glow yellow.

"Jack!" Wes shouted as he and Raf had climbed up and caused the creature to retreat."

Later...

June, Jack, and Wes were speaking to a group of people.

"So, Kai say anything about me?" Raf asked Sadie, who was sitting on top of a picnic table.

"Maybe." The autobot in disguise said. "Maybe not."

"Arcee-"

"Just don't seem overly interested." She cautioned. "Girls, no matter what species, can sniff out desperation a mile away."

"Right." Raf said.

"Where are all those people going?" Kai asked as the group of people left.

"Off the reservation." Wes answered. "They fear the Yenaldooshi's return. And with tonight's full moon, it's power would be greater than ever." Wes and the others walked back to the table where Sadie and Raf were sitting. Jack was feeling itchy and was scratching his back.

"Well, after I went Diamond head on its aft, I'm sure it's long gone!" Jack said as he scratched himself.

"My grandpa told me what you did." Kai said to Jack. "Raf's lucky to have a friend like you."

"Yep, it's just one of his many talents." Raf butted in. "He's pretty much this total super hero twenty four seven." Raf and Kai walked off.

"So what things has he done?" Kai asked.

"You know the usual. Arrest criminals, take down aliens, save mankind."

"Scratch himself like a monkey? Oo oo oo ah ah ah!" Sadie joked.

Kai turned around to see Jack doing what Sadie described. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just a bit itchy, that's all." Jack turned away from Sadie. "Arcee, could you scratch my back for a sec?"

"My fingers? On your back?" She looked disgusted. "Sure!"

Jack was on the ground and had taken his shoes off. His skin turned dark grey and he was scratching his face with his feet in a manner similar to how a dog or wolf does.

"Jack, your face looks..." Sadie was struggling to find the right word.

"Handsome? Thanks."

"Actually, more like really hairy." Jack's ears became pointed. His hair was longer, but its color remained the same.

"Jack, what's going on?" Sadie asked. Jack felt his face and noticed that he had rather angular sideburns. Jack's fingers had become claws.

"I don't know!" Jack panicked.

"So, this isn't one of his superheroes?"

"No-ooooo!" Jack howled like a wolf.

Jack got on the picnic table and removed his shoes, only to find that his toes now had sharp claws.

"Were you bitten by the Yenaldooshi?" Wes asked.

"When I was Diamondhead, but it didn't even break the skin, or should I say scratch the surface?" Jack joked.

"Jack, this is nothing to make light of, the Yenaldooshi can make others in its exact image. And when it does, those followers will seek to destroy those closest to them."

June gulped in fear before speaking up. "So how does Jack, un-wolf?"

"The only way to reverse its spell is to stop the Yenaldooshi."

"With a silver bullet?"

"That's in the movies." Wes replied. "You must dip a silver pendant in the juice of the Arbol del Matrimonio cactus, and place it against its heart. And we must do it before tonight's full moon, or you could remain like this forever, Jack." Jack was worried.

"Forever?" Jack whimpered.

"The Navajo also believe that the Yenaldooshi is a god." Kai told Jack.

"You know, maybe a little extra back hair isn't so bad."

"I will get the pendant." Wes headed off.

"Hey, is anybody else hungry?" Jack rubbed his stomach as he saw a cow that was grazing.

Later...

Jack had placed a dozen eggs in a bowl. He poured milk on them and after licking his lips, in an animalistic fashion, ate them. The got bits of egg and drops of Miko on everything that was in front of him, which included Raf's computer and Kai.

"Heh heh." Jack held a napkin in his teeth. "Sorry." Sadie was trying as hard as she could to not laugh.

Raf had found what he was searching the internet for. "The Arbol del Matrimonio cactus." Raf found a picture of cactus.

Jack hopped out of the booth by the table and ran over to the fridge. "Let's see what else I can wolf down." Jack peered up from over the door of the fridge. "Get it?" Jack suddenly became more muscular. He got taller as his face looked like that of a dog. His eyes were now fully light green. Sadie, Raf, and Kai were giving him concerned stares as he looked at them with a roast chicken in his hand that he had taken a bite out of.

"You're looking more and more like a Yenaldooshi." Kai spoke up.

"Well, I still feel like just me." Jack said. He sniffed the air. He grabbed the top of the door frame of the entrance to the Rust Bucket and looked around. He saw a hare that he chased after. The Hare went into its burrow, but that wouldn't keep it safe from Jack, who when he got to its burrow, dug into it and eventually got to the lagomorph. Jack had the panting mammal in its jaws. He turned around to see that he had got dirt all over Arcee, which shorted out her ID mask and made her look like her normal robot mode, but was human sized.

"Guess you can teach a new wolf dumb tricks." Raf joked.

Jack dropped the still breathing hare, which despite being in Jack's jaws was not harmed. It then ran off. Jack noticed that Arcee was frustrated. "Sorry."

"The nasa tracking station on the north ridge was just destroyed by some kind of werewolf." Wes said as he and June walked up. "It almost ripped apart the guards there."

"What did it want?" June asked.

"It took some satellite equipment."

"And it took down that receiver that you had here." Arcee said.

"What do you think it wants?"

"Obviously it is angry that technology has invaded what it considers its sacred land. We need to find the Yenaldooshi, and fast."

"You won't be able to look for both the Yenaldooshi and and the cactus."

"So let Kai and I look for the Cactus." Arcee suggested. She removed her ID mask and assumed her full sized robot mode. She transformed into her motorcycle alt mode. "Once we find it, we'll call." Wes nodded as he and June went off.

"Be careful." Raf and Kai said to each other.

"I think I'm gonna puke." Jack said to himself.

Soon...

Wes, Raf, and June were kneeling as Wes came up with a strategy.

"The nasa is west of here." Wes drew an X in the sand. "It's surrounded by lakes to the north, south and east." He drew three lines around the X. "Which means the Yenaldooshi should've come this way." Wes pointed to the section that represented west of the tracking station.

"Let me see if I can help." Jack offered. He was perched on a rock. Jack howled. It echoed for a bit before a response was heard. However, it is unknown what responded. So I'm gonna assume it was some earth wolves.

"What did they say?" June asked. "And what did you say?"

"Well, I asked if anyone saw somebody that walked like a human, and as for a response, they ranged from, over here, to and I quote 'shut up you damn tourist.'" Jack looked just as confused as the others. "So he must be this way!" Jack jumped off of his perch and ran in the direction that he was directed to.

At an abandoned pueblo village...

June was shining her flashlight on the mud made buildings. She found a footprint that was made by the Yenaldooshi.

"The footprints end here." Wes said as he looked at the print. After a few moments of silence, he spoke up. "I sense its presence."

"There!" June pointed at an opening in the side of the mountain that had a shadowy figure that resembled the Yenaldooshi, although this one had green eyes. Raf shined his flashlight on it to find that it was Jack. He looked almost exactly like the Yenaldooshi, except he wore clothing that resembled his getup as a human.

"No! It's me, Jackwooooolf!" Jack howled.

"Your transformation is complete." Wes was worried when he saw Jack's current state. "We need that cactus." Wes was going to call Kai, but found that he had no reception. "No reception. We'll have to summon them another way." Wes readied the flare gun.

With Arcee and Kai...

"The canyon De Cheye is a sacred place, it's where our spirits go." Kai explained to the Autobot femme.

"So it's your people's allspark?"

"The allsparks? Is that like the afterlife?"

"Well, that's one way of looking at it. But where's that cactus? If this is where spirits go, why don't they help us out?" Arcee sat down and she felt a sharp pain in her rear. "Ow!" She shouted. She removed something from her rear. It was the cactus that they were looking for.

"The Arbol del Matrimonio!" Kai shouted when she saw that Arcee had sat on, but not destroyed what they were looking for. "I guess the spirits work in strange ways."

"Ooh!" Arcee notice that the unnaturally sharp cactus had caused her to bleed a bit. "Yeah, and painful ones."

Kai tried to call her grandpa, but found that there was no reception. "No phone signal."

Arcee tried contacting Jack by sending a signal to the Omnitrix. "And I can't reach Jack either. Something in the canyon must be blocking my comms."

They saw a bright light in the sky to the east of them.

Arcee recognized the strategy of communication after having seen it be used in the war. "Over there! They must be sending us a signal." She transformed into her motorcycle mode. "Hop on." Kai obliged and the two drove off.

Back with the others...

"I hope they found the cactus." June said after Wes fired the flare.

Behind them, some rocks fell down a cliff. They were disturbed by the Yenaldooshi, which stood on top of a small mesa and had the moon shining behind him. He jumped down and landed twenty feet from the group.

"Who're you looking at ugly?" Jackwolf snarled at the Yenaldooshi. The Navajo werewolf prepared to attack.

"Jack, we need the cactus to destroy it."

The Yenaldooshi lunged at Jackwolf, who managed to toss it away. However, this put some strain on the teen turned werewolf. "Yeah, but it doesn't need anything to take us out." The Yenaldooshi opened up its jaw in a fashion similar to how the Elites in Halo do the same thing and unleashed a sonic attack at them, which appeared to be a purple shockwave. It hit the group and sent them back towards the wall of rock. June, Wes, and Jackwolf hit the rock, but Jackwolf managed to catch Raf and prevented any serious damage to the nearly thirteen year old boy.

"Guess its bark is worse than its bite." Jackwolf placed Raf down and then lunged at the Yenaldooshi. The two of them got into a literal dog fight.

Jackwolf managed to strike the Yenaldooshi with an uppercut, but the Navajo monster grabbed onto Jackwolf's ankles and tossed him in the air and on the way down, slammed down on him with both of its fists. But when Jackwolf tried to recover, the Yenaldooshi began clawing at his face. The Yenaldooshi had Jackwolf pinned down at the edge of a cliff.

"Back off, now!" June struck the Yenaldooshi that had her son at its mercy in the back of the head with a wooden plank. The plank shattered, leaving her defenceless as the Yenaldooshi focused its attention on her.

Jack saw the monster approach June. He decided it was time to activate the Omnitrix.

"Going XLR-wolf." Jackwolf found the the black and green device was no longer on his wrist. "Wait! *pant* *pant* *pant* It's not on my wrist!" Jackwolf had his ears pinned back as he looked around for the Omnitrix. He then decided to just throw a rock at the monster that was going to disembowel his friends and family. The Yenaldooshi turned its attention from the humans back to the imitation of itself. The two werewolves got in a fight where they rolled around, trying to rip each other's throats out.

Arcee in her vehicle mode with Kai riding on her drove up over the side of the cliff. Kai got off before Arcee transformed. Jackwolf and the Yenaldooshi were back on their feet, Jackwolf trying to keep his attacker from getting the upper hand. Jackwolf clawed at the Yenaldooshi muzzle and then tackled it.

"Here you go." Arcee handed Wes the cactus, after which, she helped Jack in holding the Yenaldooshi in place. Wes squeezed the plant, getting a single drop of its juice on a silver pendant that had a carving of a wolf on it. Wes held the pendant in front of him, pointed at the werewolf. The Yenaldooshi's eyes widened and it tossed the two that held it back at Wes, first Jackwolf, then Arcee, causing him to drop the pendant. Raf picked it up and ran at the Yenaldooshi, whose arms were being restrained by Jackwolf. Raf held the pendant up to it's chest and expected it to work, but it didn't.

"Wait, shouldn't something happen?" Raf asked as he stepped back, distraught that what Wes said would happen didn't happen.

The Yenaldooshi grabbed Jackwolf and flipped him."Look out!" June shouted as the Yenaldooshi jumped over Raf. It then made a run for it up the side of the messa.

June, Arcee, Wes, and Kai walked over. Wes, who was the most confused took the silver pendant out of Raf's hand. "I don't understand. It should've worked."

Kai was the first to speak up. "Grandpa, the pendant didn't work because," She hesitated before she continued. "maybe we're not dealing with a Yenaldooshi."

"But it bit him. Isn't that why he's like that?" Arcee asked as Jack started writhing around. He let out a low roar as his blue and black human clothing turned into a white sleeveless jumpsuit that had an Omnitrix dial near the waist and four black lines around it that formed a sort of X pattern.

Kai's right." June reasoned. "Maybe you're not some navajo werewolf. Maybe you're some alien werewolf."

"Which would explain why you haven't been able to go hero because you're already an alien." Raf concluded.

"That would explain that howl of his." Wes said,

"And why the omnitrix isn't on my wrist anymore." Jack added. "But how did I go alien then?"

"Did that thing ever grab onto the watch or anything?" Kai asked.

"Right. when we were fighting." Jackwolf remembered being attacked by the Yenaldooshi. "Both times, it scratched it with its claws, and it glowed yellow." He then remembered an even earlier encounter. "Just like when Airachnid touched her finger to the faceplate that one time."

"An alien werewolf." June rubbed her forehead. "Just when I thought this summer couldn't get any stranger."

"Oh, man!" Jackwolf stomped on the ground as he expressed his dissatisfaction.

"What?" Arcee was concerned.

"Well, if I knew I could just unlock different aliens if they just touched the watch, I'd have let them scratch it a long time ago. I'd been an awesome Vilgax."

"Well, right now, I'd just worry about you being Jack." June rolled her eyes.

"Unh!" June groaned as she felt some tremors.

"Something tells me we may have some other worries, as well."

At a cave...

The group came up the opening of a cave. They could here bat chirping as they flew out.

"Aaah!" Kai screamed at the bats that flew at her.

"Ha ha ha!" Jack chuckled at her.

They entered the cave, the walls and floor made of a rather smooth rock that gave off a strange green glow due to the moon's light. Jackwolf and Arcee lead the way.

A strange, yet familiar scent hit Raf's nostrils. "Do you smell that?" He asked.

Jack thought that that was an insult directed at him. "What? My wolf

breath's not that bad."

"Don't worry about that Jack, it's not you." Arcee took in a breath through her olfactory sensors. "It smells like sulfur."

"A sulfur smell is the sign of lava." Wes said. "But the volcanoes around here have all been inactive for millions of years."

"So has Cybertron, but you still find some activity on the surface." Arcee retorted.

"So then that's not real lava." Jackwolf said as he turned around and saw the molten rocks flow in the direction of the group.

"It must have reactivated the volcano somehow." June said as she and the others ran from the lava flow.

"Maybe it wants us off our land one way or the other." Wes inferred. They came to a cavern that had a way across, but there was a gap in it that had fallen into the lake of yellow hot lava that was below them.

"Time to see how far this big, bad wolf

can jump." Jackwolf grabbed Raf and Kai. "Who wants a ride?" He leaped over the gap. Arcee followed him and leaped across. Jackwolf jumped back to the side where his mom and her friend were and grabbed them. "I'll need to take both of you, and I'll need all the help i can get." Jackwolf opened his mouth Shangelli style to reveal that the inside of his jaw was light green. Jackwolf looked at the ground and used his sonic roar attack to propel himself into the air. When he was in range of the side where Raf, Arcee, and Kai were, he heard the Omnitrix start to time out. He tossed Wes and his mom onto the stone platform. In a flash of red light, Jackwolf went back to being Jack.

"Jack!" Arcee shouted as she and June ran to the edge of the cliff to find Jack hanging onto the side of the stone surface. Arcee grabbed Jack and pulled him up.

"The omnitrix finally timed out, and check this out." Jack showed the group his newest alien, which was represented by a silhouette of the Yenaldooshi.

"The watch absorbed its dna." Raf realized. "But why didn't it transform you instantly?"

"Who cares? For now, welcome to the club," Jack tried to think of a name. "um... Jackwolf. Yeah, I'll get back to you on that." Jack was now back to having ten aliens.

Later...

The group came to the end of cave system.

"Look! a way out!" Raf expressed his joy. They began walking towards the opening, which was at the bottom of an incline.

"So I wonder where all the satellite equipment is he took." June stated.

They heard growling coming from nearby. The group stopped in their tracks and looked around for the source of it. The Yenaldooshi dropped down from the ceiling and landed in the space between the group and the exit. The alien werewolf opened up its jaw and unleashed its purple tinted supersonic howl at the group. They jumped out of the way.

"Going hero!" Jack shouted as he activated the Omnitrix. When he transformed, he went for Diamondhead, but he got someone that he didn't think he had anymore. His whole body became bloated. His eyes turned yellow as he grew plates of armor along his spin, on his shoulders, the sides of his knees, and on the tops of his hands. He had turned into Cannonbolt. "Yes! Finally!" Cannonbolt shouted. The Yenaldooshi tried to attack him, but he just body slammed the werewolf away. Cannonbolt jumped up and then rolled into his attack mode, which was him curled into a ball. He rolled towards the Yenaldooshi, using a section of rock as a ramp to land on the creature that gave Jack a new alien mode. Cannonbolt was then bounced up and hit the ceiling, which forced him to unroll. He landed on the Yenaldooshi, who lifted him up and tossed him at the wall of the cave. Cannonbolt's rear end was stuck in the rock. He managed to break out of the rock, but not without causing even more problems. "Huh?" He wondered how the lava didn't burn his behind.

"We can't let this lava go down the mountainside and reach the village." Wes was concerned for the place he and others called home.

"I'll seal it all up." Cannonbolt pointed to the exit. "Go!" Cannonbolt was tackled by the Yenaldooshi. A large section of the cave collapsed, revealing a massive lake of lava that was flowing underneath their feet. The Yenaldooshi exhibited some signs of fear by taking a few steps back, but a few seconds later, it jumped on Cannonbolt again, trying to get him to fall into the lava.

"Jack no!" June shouted as she tried to rush in to help her son, but Wes stopped her.

"Just go!" Cannonbolt shouted as he engaged the Yenaldooshi.

The others saw rocks fall on the two dueling aliens. Some rocks then fell into the lava as the platform that they stood on started to break apart. They hightailed it outta there. Wes almost tripped over as he ran through the archway that was the exit tunnel of the cave system. They made it out as the cave collapsed, sealing Jack and the Yenaldooshi inside.

There was rumbling. Then something went boom. "Oh, yeah!" Cannonbolt burst out of the sealed entrance/ exit. "Shell power!"

"Way to go, Jack." Arcee congratulated her partner.

Later, back at the village...

Wes was speaking with two other people. After a minute or so, they turned and walked off. "Good news." Wes told the group. "It seems a few people are returning. Thank you."

"Eh, it was nothing." Jack said.

"What do you think that alien wanted anyway?" Kai asked.

"Since we never found any of that satellite equipment or your receiver, I can't say for sure." June replied.

"Who cares? We kicked its aft, and now maybe I can collect alien DNA to fill in the gap in the Omnitrix." Jack said as he looked at the new alien that he got.

"Come in the museum. I can't send you on the road without a few souvenirs." Wes went into the building that had the tapestry of the Yenaldooshi. June and Jack followed him.

"It's a long summer. Maybe I'll see you again." Raf said to Kai, hoping that she would also want to get together.

"The thing is, Raf you seem like a nice guy, but you're just not my type."

"Huh?" Raf went wide eyed and slack jawed. "I-I thought you really liked me?" Raf was confused.

"Well, that was before Jack turned back into, well, Jack."

"What's wrong with Jack?"

"Nothing, and the alien stuff's cool, just not as cool as when he was a Yenaldooshi." Kai admitted. Arcee however had a look of anger on her holographic face. "I figured you and I could train him, tame him, you know?"

Arcee heard this. "Train him?" She couldn't believe her ears. "Tame him? Jack's a person, not a pet." Arcee poked Kai's shoulder. "You can't talk about my partner like that!"

"Okay, sorry."

"Only I can do things like that to him." Arcee was glaring daggers at Kai. "You just blew it big time."

"Oh, well." Kai rolled her eyes as she turned around and walked off. "Whatever."

Raf walked up to Arcee. He didn't look too happy. "Sorry about that Raf." She patted him on the back. "The thing about a crush is, sometimes you get crushed." Even though she wasn't Raf's guardian, it made more sense for Arcee to be the one giving Raf moral support in this situation. "Don't worry. There's lots of other girls out there."

"You think so?" Raf cheered up a bit. "But how do I impress them as me and without using Jack?"

Arcee decided to throw a bit of Miko into her encouragement that she was giving Raf. "Two secret words is all you need to know."

"Really?" Raf asked. "What are they? Come on! You got to tell me." Raf was getting frustrated. "Arcee!"

"Heh heh." Arcee chuckled as she walked off towards the Rust Bucket. "Boys."

Raf sighed. "Girls!"

Meanwhile...

Back in the cave a machine that resembled a satellite dish powered up, the light on the tip of the dish's antenna glew yellow as did three of the panels that were on either side of it. Something weird was going on.

Chapter end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Yes, in this story, Raf and Kai eventually get together. Though that might change. Also, We're nearing the halfway point of this story.
> 
> Kai will still wield Excalibur, but I have a rather interesting idea as to why she's worthy. I won't tell you until we get there.
> 
> And for those who are concerned. Some aspects of Navajo culture are not accurately represented here. For those wondering, in real life, Yenaldooshi are witches who wear coyote skins and travel at night. What Kai said about the Yenaldooshi being a god was incorrect(as far as I know, she may have either been trying to play a prank on Jack, or was getting the Yenaldooshi confused with something else.)


	21. Framed

San Francisco, again, for some reason...

Jack, June, Raf, and Arcee in her Sadie disguise were waiting in line outside gamestop on a very sunny day.

"Ugh!" June's mood was starting to get affected by the heat, causing him to get mad. "We've been in this line for" She looked at the Omnitrix, then looked at his phone when she remembered the Omnitrix didn't tell time. "two hours, and it hasn't budged an Inch."

"Small price to pay for Halo 2 Anniversary." Raf was smiling at a mile a minute. "I'd do anything to get this game, stand out in the heat for triple that."

"Wait, don't you already have that game?" Sadie, who was not sweating at all, asked. "I've seen you and Bumblebee play it a few times."

"Hello! This is the anniversary edition, the graphics are all much better." Raf defended. "Duh!"

"You know, hate to sound like Gwen, but there's a nice air-conditioned bookstore over there." June pointed across the street. "Maybe we could wait inside until this line thins out a bit. And also so that I don't either lose it or pass out." June, who despite living in a desert for years didn't take the heat of San Francisco as well. I blame the humidity.

"And lose my place? Not an option! You two go. I'll get my game and Jack can stay with me. We'll get my game and meet you guys back at the RV."

"Want us to pick up anything for you at the bookstore?" June said as she and Sadie walked across the street. "Yeah, something about modding." The two girls walked off.

Later...

June and Sadie exited the book store. "So think Jack's gone stir crazy in that line yet?" June chuckled at her son's expense, as she knew that Jack although patient had his limits.

"Aah!" People ran out of the Gamestop. Four Arms jumped out the door to the game store. The sirens of police cars were heard. One of the cars drove towards Four Arms and when the driver stepped on the brakes, he skidded and collided with the Tetramand's feet. Four Arms, who was not injured by the car, picked it up and after the two officers in it where out.

"Uh, why is Jack going berserk and tossing around police officers?" Sadie couldn't believe her eyes, seeing Jack attack innocent people.

"Good question." June too was shocked. She thought she raised Jack to be better than this.

"Aah!" The officers ran away from the attacking Four Arms.

More police cars drove up as a standoff between Four Arms and the SFPD began. Four Arms threw the car at the side of a building. He grabbed a dumpster and then a light post and tossed them at the police, the light post landing behind both the officers and June and Arcee/ Sadie, but the dumpster almost hit the two women, but Sadie pushed June out of the way, both of them avoiding the trash filled metal box.

"He must have snapped his cap." June peered from behind the truck that she and Sadie took cover behind.

"Must've seen their trade in policy."

"I still don't believe it." June said.

A few more police cars drove up. Four Arms grabbed a small green car and tossed it at the cops, causing them to swerve to avoid hitting it. One of the cars hit a fire hydrant, breaking the water spout and causing it to spray water up in the air.

A massive murky green armored military jeep drove up. Three men wearing back longsleeved shirts and grey pants and had what resembled night vision goggles with red lenses. A fourth guy also got out he lacked the night vision goggles. He had blond hair that was in an orderly buzzcut. He had a scar that was just left of his right eyebrow.

"Lieutenant Steel, special Alien containment team." He showed the officer a badge that had a picture of him next to it. "We'll take it from here." The police officers got out of there. "Concussion bazooka!" Two of the SACT troops brought out said weapon, which had two parts. One of the troops had what looked like a weapon you'd see come out of Team Fortress 2; it looked like a AAA battery turned into a bazooka. The other had a vest and backpack that looked like two nine volt batteries, one on both the front and back. On the back of the second 'battery', there was an AA battery on top of that nine volt battery. Connecting the ends of the batteries were copper colored cables.

"That doesn't look good." June voiced her worry.

Sadie ran up to Four Arms. "Jack, what are you doing?" Four Arms was about to drop the car he held onto Sadie. Lieutenant Steel nodded. His men unleashed a bolt of yellowish orange energy at Four Arms, which sent him back flying down the street into the window of a pizza restaurant. Four Arms leaped out of the restaurant holding the brick oven that the place used to cook its food. He tossed it at a truck that was parked beside the SACT's vehicle, causing an explosion. Four Arms leaped away.

"There must be a logical Explanation, right?" Sadie reasoned.

"Let's get back to the Rust Bucket to be sure."

Later, at the Rust Bucket...

June and Sadie entered the domestic fortress. The saw Raf playing the campaign of his new Halo game. Jack was watching him.

"Are you demented?" Arcee shouted. She grabbed Jack and put him in a headlock. "Going alien just to get a Raf a remake of a ten year old video game?!

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked as Raf hit pause on the game.

"You going Four Arm freaky in front of that Gamestop!" Arcee shouted. That's what I'm talking about!"

"Now I'm sure he has a good explanation."

"Don't you, Jack?" June had high hopes that her son would confess.

"Yeah." Jack got out of Arcee's head lock. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, sure." Arcee rolled her eyes.

June thought Jack was lying. "Just like Miko never puts empty milk bottles back in the refrigerator or you never leave the shower all gunked up, or Raf never, ever leave the toilet seat up in the middle of the night! You kids never do anything wrong, do you?"

"Sounds about right."

"Grrr!" June growled.

"Look, I don't know if some Encyclopedia or something fell On your head at the bookstore, But you have no evidence I did anything wrong." Jack defended. The only time I went alien in the past hour was when I turned into XLR8 to go to the base to get Raf Xbox 360."

"Oh, yeah?" Arcee grabbed the remote to the TV and changed the channel to a news station that reported on the attack by Four Arms.

"That's not me!"

"Oh, no?"

"I'm sure it's just some other Four armed alien going postal in front of a Gamestop."

"Arcee." June tried to restrain her.

"It's possible."

"Remember when Tetrax turned out to be a good guy?" Jack mentioned one of his earlier battles. "In fact, all the alien species in the Omnitrix live out in the galaxy somewhere."

"That's true." June admitted. Jack had a smile on his face. "Besides, Jack wouldn't be that irresponsible with his alien powers like that."

"June, please." Arcee was getting frustrated.

"All right." June conceded. "Maybe you have a point." Jack's smile turned into a frown.

"I won't stand for this!" Jack shouted. "If anyone's going to ruin my reputation except me.

Back at the Gamestop...

As the clean up crews started repairing the surrounding area, Jack began looking around for proof of his innocence. He picked up a brick and looked at it. June, Sadie, and Raf had followed him.

"Criminals always return to the scene of the crime." Arcee sneered.

"Will you give it a rest?" Jack said to his partner. "I am trying to solve a mystery here. And I thought that you were on my side?"

"Not when there's irrefutable evidence that shows that you're a criminal!" Sadie shouted.

"Now what do you expect to find that everyone else couldn't?" June scratched her head in confusion.

Jack heard some clanging in the alley. He looked and saw four arms peering out from behind one of the buildings, but Jack was the only one to see him. "There he is!" Jack shouted and ran after his alien form.

"Wait!" Said as Jack ran down the alley.

Jack ran down the alley, took a right turn at a T junction and saw Four Arms climb over a barricade. Jack got over it and tried to transform. "Come on, XLR8!" Jack transformed into Jackwolf. "The werewolf? Not what I would've gone for but I guess he'll do." Jackwolf had lost sight of the faux Four Arms, but he detected something else. Using the advanced sense of smell that a Loboan possessed, he detected Four Arm's scent.

Jackwolf climbed up the side of a building and made his way along the rooftops. Jumped over the tops of the buildings.

Back in the alley, June, Raf, and Sadie saw Jack turn into Jackwolf and climb up the building.

"He must be off to commit his next crime." Sadie said. She removed her ID mask and transformed into her alt mode. "Hop on." Arcee commanded. Raf and June got on. They drove out of the alley and after Jackwolf.

They followed Jackwolf down the streets until they reached a building that was built in the same architectural style as the field mueseam in Chicago.

"The mint!" Jack wolf said as he climbed down one of the buildings. He hid in an alleyway and waited for the Omnitrix to time out. Arcee's vehicle mode with her two passengers drove into the same alley that Jackwolf was in. June and Raf got off of Arcee as she transformed into her robot mode and placed her ID mask on, assuming her Sadie guise.

"So, here to steal the money right off the press?" Sadie asked.

"Arcee, I'm innocent! I didn't do anything wrong!" Jackwolf said.

"Sure, and Breakdown's being turned into a suit of robot armor."

"Just listen to me! I tracked that phony me's scent. The trail ends here." Jackwolf explained as the Omnitrix dial on his chest blinked red and turned him back into Jack. "We got to go stop whoever's doing this!" Jack ran into the mint's main entrance, the others ran after him.

Soon...

June, Raf, and Sadie were in one of the large open rooms of the mint that handled the final steps of making coins were.

"Are you sure he came in here?" June asked. There was an explosion.

They ran around a row of money presses to see Heatblast threatening two of the guards. He shot a fireball at the cat walks that were above the guards, causing them to fall in front of them.

"Okay, I was willing to give him one, but two of Jack's aliens terrorizing San Francisco? You're right can't be a coincidence, Sadie."

"I'm stopping this right now!" Sadie ran at Heatblast. "Yo, hothead!" Heatblast turned to face Sadie. "Back off on the fireworks before somebody gets really hurt! Now, if you take responsibility for all the wacko stuff you've been doing lately, I'm sure we can help you.

Jack ran between June and Raf and Sadie. "Sadie!" Jack shouted.

"Don't talk to me felon!" Sadie shouted. "Can't you see I got to deal with-" Sadie glanced behind her and and saw Jack. Sadie realized that the Pyronite that was attacking wasn't Jack. "If that's Jack," June pointed at Jack. "Then who are you?"

"Me? I'm a hottie." The Pyronite said with a voice that the main four would recognize. "Can't you tell?" He charged up a fireball. The guards ran out of the room. Faux Heatblast fired a stream of flame at Sadie.

Jack, as Diamondhead jumped in front of Sadie to shield her. "Now do you believe me?" Diamondhead asked the Autobot in disguise that he shielded. When Heatblast finished firing at him, he flung a few shards of crystal at Heatblast. "You and mom get everyone else out of here!" June and the others ran from the two aliens. Diamondhead took a few steps back and shot some more crystal shards at Heatblast, who in retaliation, shot a fireball, which Diamondhead ducked to avoid hitting. "I don't know who you are, but you're giving aliens a bad name."

"So why don't you cry about It," Heatblast mocked. "or are you gonna go run and tell on me to your mommy? Or that Arcee, who's both your bike and your motorcycle?"

Heatblast fired a fireball at one of the vats, causing it to drop the coins that it held onto Diamondhead. "Unh!"

"Hey! It's raining money!" The fake Heatblast spun around in place.

"Who are you?" Diamondhead asked.

"You still haven't figured it out? Maybe this will help." Heatblast's head turned into that of Stinkfly, followed by Diamondhead and Upgrade, before stopping at a red headed human that Diamondhead recognized.

"Vince?! I don't get it. I thought you were drained of all my powers back in Mobil.

"That's what you get for thinking, Jacky. Turns out, I absorbed enough of that weird watch energy so I could turn into any of those aliens inside if I just concentrated hard enough." As Vince explained, Diamondhead stood up and got out of the pile of coins that had knocked him over. "Only problem is, I can only stay human for a short time. You made me into this freak!"

"Like this is my fault? Whose idea was it to drain out all the powers of the watch?Yours, not mine."

"I don't care because now It's payback time, partner." Vince had an evil smile on his face. "Everything 50/50. I do the crime, and you'll do the time."

"You'll never get away with this." Diamondhead was furious at Vince.

"Wrong! You'll never get away with this. I'm not me." He pointed at Diamondhead. "I'm you, remember?"

A window was destroyed by SACT entering the mint. Vince shot a fireball at Diamondhead's back, knocking him down.

"Ha!" Vince laughed at Jack's misery. "Keep the change. You can use it to pay your bail." Vince morphed into Stinkfly, who lack the Omnitrix dial that was on his face. "Gotta fly." Stinkfly took off, breaking the windows in the process.

The SACT troops surrounded Diamondhead. They had their weapons aimed at him.

"Sorry, rockhead." Lieutenant Steel Approached. "No unauthorized withdrawals on my watch.

"But you don't get it." Diamondhead pleaded. "The bad alien just got away." He pointed to the broken window. "I'm the good alien."

"Yeah. Sure you are just like those alien heroes all over the news nowadays." He held his hand up and his men readied to fire at Diamondhead. "No sale. To me, you're just a walking Chandelier.

Raf ran up and vouched for Jack. "He's telling the truth, officer. There was another alien, who-

"I don't try them, kid. I just catch them. We'll let the boys at area 51 figure out who's naughty and Who's nice. Chicago, Tallahassee, Barstow; you and your outer space pals have been keeping me real busy, but you're not getting away with it this time."

"This time?" Diamondhead turned his fingers into sharp blades. He flung three crystal shards at the guns of the soldiers that were behind him. Diamondhead ran into the cloud of smoke and hid among the money making machines.

"Get that thing!" Steel ordered. Hit tops went after Diamondhead. Two soldiers that were up on the catwalk fired at Diamondhead. They high fived just before the alien that they were pursuing had fired a crystal shard between them. He fired more shards, which caused the catwalk to fall over. Diamondhead was shot at by two soldiers who along with Steel were running at him. Diamondhead made a barrier when he touched his hand to the ground and used that as an opportunity to put some distance between him and the SACT. As Diamondhead got to the top, the Omnitrix started to time out.

"Uh." Diamondhead started to panic. He jumped off of the catwalk and landed on one of the printing money machines. The Omnitrix timed out right before he was found by one of the SACT troops. "Unh." Jack faked cowered. "Don't hurt me. Oh, is that monster gone?" Jack stood up and turned around. He had a devious smile on his face.

A few minutes later...

"Thank goodness you found him!" June came up and hugged Jack. "We were so worried! He's always wandering away. I'm thinking of getting a Leash.

"Hmm. Nice watch." Steel noticed the Omnitrix on Jack's wrist. "Never seen anything like it.

"Yeah. It's from, uh, Japan!" Jack lied to the man who probably looks like he could stare down Megatron. "My friend who's an exchange student gave it to me." That however was only half a lie.

"No sign of the alien, sir." One of the SACT troops said. "It's like that thing Disappeared into thin air."

"And I don't suppose you four know anything about this alien?" He asked.

"No." June lied. She was a former member of the plumbers, she didn't have to listen to this guy, but she was just being polite so that she didn't get herself and the group that she traveled with in trouble. "If we did, we'd tell you."

"Yeah, of course you would." June and the others exited without causing a scene. "Keep an eye on them. They know more than they're saying."

Back in the Rust Bucket...

The Rust Bucket was parked on one of San Francisco's well known hilly sections of and the others were speaking with Optimus and Fowler via a video chat that was being projected on a white bedsheet by using Jack's cell phone and a projector. A second camera was hooked up so that Fowler and Optimus could see them.

"So what you're saying is that it was Vince at both the Gamestop and the mint?" Optimus asked.

"Yeah, they were both setups." Jack responded.

"Now that would explain a lot." Fowler said. "I don't mind telling you, but from what I've heard, that kid's rowboat is missing a couple of paddles. But that still doesn't explain why that anti-alien SWAT team guy think all aliens are bad."

Raf, after finding something on the internet spoke up. "Looks like it's from personal experience."

"Please elaborate Rafael." Optimus requested.

"Check this out." He showed those in the Rust Bucket and Optimus and Fowler the files that he found. "Your friend has been busy, and Not just here in San Francisco." He showed them an article the had Ripjaws holding a bag of money with his jaw extended. "Look. Wildmutt terrorizing Tallahassee, ripjaws in Chicago, Ghostfreak in Barstow."

"I'm gonna get blamed for all that stuff, and I didn't do any of it!" Jack was furious. "He has Ghostfreak but without the downsides."

"Yes, from Arcee's report, she said that your Ectonurite transformation Ghostfreak escaped from the Omnitrix, leaving you at only nine until a few days later when you scanned the DNA of a creature called a 'Yenaldooshi', followed by you regaining Cannonbolt."

"Optimus, Vince mentioned Arcee, not by her alias of Sadie, but by her real name." When Jack said that, Optimus' optics went wide with concern. "And the thing is, I never used Arcee's real name around Vince."

"Someone else must have told Vince about Arcee's identity. The question is who was the one to reveal that secret?"

"Maybe it was MECH." Fowler suggested.

"Can anybody say, 'ironic'? If that's true, MECH probably got something out of this. Probably alien DNA from Vince. Funny, their leader was destroyed by the Omnitrix so they want a creature created by it to gain an advantage." Miko, who walked into view of the camera that was at the base, said.

"But what if it was the 'cons? They would want a way of using the Omnitrix's power against the 'bots."

"Regardless of the source of Vince's knowledge about us, you should make it your main priority to take Vince down by any means necessary." Optimus stated.

"Prime, I thought you were against harming humans." Fowler interjected.

"Under normal circumstances, that would be the case. But Vince has the potential to become a threat greater than that of the Decepticons."

Optimus was about to end the transmission, but Miko stopped him. "Jack, before I go, what'd I miss?"

"Well, for starters, Ghostfreak broke out, he tried to possess me, then we killed him, then I almost got turned into a werewolf, Raf now has a crush on this girl named Kai,"

"Who wanted to keep Jack in his werewolf form as a pet."

"Yeah. Wait, what? Moving on, and besides that, I re unlocked cannonbolt and got a new form that I call Jackwolf."

"You are calling your newest form Jackwolf? You should work on a better name." Optimus commented.

"Or maybe I will. With Bulkhead's help, him and I could come up with some names."

"Okay, you do that." The transmission ended.

The screaming of people was heard as a green black and white cable car sped down the hill. Those in the Rust Bucket looked out the window to see the panicking people.

"Vince!" Jack headed to the door to the Rust Bucket.

"The boy must have gone Upgrade to hijack that cable Car."

"Anything he can upgrade, I can upgrade better." Jack attempted to turn into Upgrade, but he got Wildmutt.

"Wildmutt? Nice choice, fido." Sadie laughed a bit.

Wildmutt growled and exited the Rust Bucket. SACT troops saw this.

"Mobile one, a wild dog alien just emerged from the RV. Now both are heading down California street." One of the troops said over his communicator.

"Maintain visuals. I'm on my way." Steel said over the comms.

On the cable car, the driver tried to pull the emergency brake as the passengers panicked.

"Now, why are you doing that?" Vince asked the driver through a circle that was smooshed to look like pac man. Tentacles came and broke off the emergency brake. "We're just starting to have fun!"

Wildmutt was jumping on the roofs of cars as he chased after the outta control cable car. Wildmutt jumped off one of the cars and grabbed one of the cords and used it to fling himself onto the top of the vehicle that Vince was possessing.

When Wildmutt landed on the roof of the car, Vince spoke to Jack through the same way the did with the driver. "Sorry, Jack. No pets allowed!" Spikes erupted from the roof of the RV, forcing Wildmutt off of the top of the cable car. He hung off the side and was almost caught hit by a truck that was heading down the hill.

June was using the Rust Bucket's boost mode and was heading down after the cable car. Raf was having flashbacks to the experience that he endured when he found out about June's past. Sadie was looking directly ahead, unable to comprehend what was going on. June had a look of great satisfaction on her face,

"You know, times like this, learning how to drive by using my dad's old race car really comes in handy."

Back in the cable car, Wildmutt had made it inside. He was scaring the passengers, well, more like he was raising the general amount of fear.

A mass of black tar with a green circle rose out from the wall of the interior of the cable car. "Peek-a-boo!" Vince said with more than a hint of cynicism in his voice. Wildmutt turned to face what resembled Upgrade's head and growled at it. A fist came up from beneath Wildmutt and knocked him against the side of the cable car. "Heel boy, heel!" Vince used one of the benches to knockout Wildmutt. "That's a good little hero." Vince stopped controlling the cable car. He stood on top of it as Upgrade. "Huh. Let's see. The brakes are out, the hero's trapped, and everyone's about to go for a dip in the bay. My work's done." Vince morphed into Stinkfly and flew off.

Wildmutt had gotten himself out from under the bench and went to the back of the cable car. He saw that the Rust Bucket was right behind the runaway trolley. June stuck her head out of the window and shouted: "Jack, attach the line to the bottom of the RV."

Wildmutt took hold of the cable with his jaw and leaped out of the cable car and clung onto the front of the Rust Bucket. He bent down and hooked the cable onto one the sturdier places on the chassis and hoped for the best. He raised his head and nodded to his mom. June stepped on the brakes, trying to bring the Rust Bucket to a stop, but that wasn't working. June pressed a blue button that sent a grappling hook into the building.

That provided the necessary bracing, as the cable car stopped after the front eight inches went off a dock. Wildmutt breathed a sigh of relief.

Later, at night...

The Rust Bucket pulled into a parking lot that had a dumpster near by. Jack was hiding behind said dumpster, waiting for to be picked up. When the Rust Bucket came to a stop, June, Raf, and Sadie came out of it.

"Not bad for an alien with no thumbs." Raf joked.

"Freeze!" Steel shouted. The group was surrounded by SACT soldiers who appeared out of nowhere. "One move and you're all swiss cheese." He gave them options. "You have two choices, tell me what you had to with these aliens, or get measured for your prison uniforms." Jack looked at the Omnitrix, seeing how it was still in the red. "It has something to do with this watch, doesn't it?" Steel grabbed Jack's left wrist. "Is it some kind of signal to call the aliens?"

"Sir, we're getting reports of a crystal alien rampaging on the Golden Gate." One of the SACT troops said. "It looks like it could bring Down the whole bridge if it Isn't stopped."

Steel got out his radio. "Falcon one, pick up at my 20. We're not done." A helicopter flew over and let down a cable that Steel attached to his belt. He was lifted up into the helicopter, which headed to the bridge.

"Those guys don't stand a chance against Vince. I have to stop him!"

At the Golden Gate bridge...

Vince, as Diamondhead was on top of one of the bridge's supports. He fired a couple of crystal shards at the cables, cutting them and causing them to fall onto some of the cars, but the people had gotten out of their vehicles because as I think we all know, it proper edicate to leave your vehicle when the Golden Gate Bridge is under attack. Vince fired a couple more crystal shards at a truck, causing it to explode. Vince heard and saw the approaching helicopter. When the copter was over the support pillar, Vince fired several shards of crystal at it after Steel started to get out of it.

"Oh, yeah!" Vince said as he admired his work. The SACT officer however managed to cut the rope that attached him to the helicopter. He landed on the support a few meters from Vince. "Lieutenant Steel, so nice to see you again." Steel did what most would consider suicide, charging right at Diamondhead.

On the street below, the Rust Bucket pulled up. The group exited the RV.

"Uhh." Jack groaned as he saw Vince atop the bridge. "Just one more thing I'm gonna get blamed for."

Steel was being beaten pretty hard. He had a black eye, a bloody lip and numerous other injuries. Vince approached him. He turned Diamondhead's left hand into a blade and grabbed Steel with the other. He was about to jam to blade right through Steel, but he heard someone speak up.

"Let him go, Vince." Four Arms interrupted. Four Arms stood at the other side of the platform. "This is about you and me."

"Sounds good to me." Vince tossed Steel onto one of the cables that kept the bridge supported. Steel almost fell into the bay, but he managed to get a grip on the cable and then climb up. "Still trying to be a goody two-shoes, Jack?" Vince approached Four Arms. "Let me guess. You just want to help me? Ha ha ha!"

"You had plenty of chances to get help, but you always messed it up. This time, you're getting what you deserve."

"Aw. Does this mean that we're not best buddies anymore?" Vince fired crystal shards at Four Arms, who jumped to avoid them.

Four Arms landed in front of Vince and grabbed hold of him and punched him back, causing Vince's Petrosapien body to scrape against the bridge.

"You risked all those Innocent lives just to get even with me?"

"Nobody's innocent!" Vince got up and ran at Four Arms. They just haven't had the chance to make fun of me yet."

Back on the ground, June, Sadie, and Raf saw two of the SACT troops readying the Concusion Bazooka.

"You can't do this." June pleaded. "He's trying to help!"

The troops took aim at Four Arms and Vince. "Targets locked on, sir." The one wearing the backpack said through his communicator. "Permission to fire?"

"Fire on my command only." Lieutenant Steel said through his communicator. "Repeat-on my command only."

"We got to blow those alien freaks back into outer space." The one carrying the backpack said after he hung up.

"You really want to a disobey a direct order from steel?"

Four Arms punched Vince across the face twice, then twice against the chest. He then picked up Vince and slammed him against his knee, which didn't harm the faux Petrosapien. Four Arms was about to pound Vince's face in with his fists, but Vince turned into Heatblast and shot a stream of flame at Four Arms. Four Arms tried to body slam Vince, but he jumped out of the way. When Vince landed, Four Arms slammed down, causing the metal panel to flop around. VInce turned into Stinkfly when he was tossed off of the bridge. He flew at Four Arms, knocking him over. As Vince came in for another Strike he turned human and flew into Four Arm's chest. Vince was knocked over and onto the red metal. Four Arms approached the now human Vince and was about to punch him. Vince thought that Jack was going to kill him, but was surprised when Four Arm's fist hit next to his head.

"Huh?" Vince was confused as Four Arms turned and walked away. "Get back here and fight, Darby!" Vince shouted. "I'm not through with you yet."

Four Arms turned to face Vince. "But I'm through with you. You're not worth it. You never were."

Vince was furious. He mutated into a being that had Four Arms' body shape, amount of arms, two eyes on the left side, legs, and torso, an upper left arm that was like Heatblast, Stinkfly's wings, a section of his back that was styled after Upgrade, a upper right arm that was like Diamondhead, Ghostfreak's eye track, Grey Matter's right eye, two lower arms that resembled Wildmutt's arms and nose, Ripjaws' lure, teeth, and gill, and XLR8's tail. However, vince still had his red hair.

Four Arms looked at Vince's monstrous form and was shocked. "What the?"

Vince saw that he was a monster and tried concentrating. "I-I can't change back!" Vince was steamed. "I'm stuck like this!" Look at what you've done!"

"Oh, man! Is there anything I'm not going to get blamed for today?" Vince charged at Four Arms when he was nearly there, he used the Stinkfly wings to get more momentum and made the blow stronger. Vince had Four Arms against side of the support tower. He punched Four Arms, but Vince's blows were all blocked. However, Vince punched Four Arms into the tower, then reached in and grabbed him by the front of the clothes that Four Arms wore. He tossed Four Arms to the other side of the bridge, where he would've fallen off if he hadn't held onto the edge. Vince stepped on his foot and applied a great deal of pressure. "Agh!" Four Arms grunted in pain.

"You'll never beat me because you're one of the good guys, and good guys never have the guts to finish guys like me." Vince taunted.

"But I do." Steel said. "Fire!" He ordered. The Concussion Bazooka was fired at Vince.

"Unh!" Vince grunted as he was sent over the side of the tower and was sent crashing into the bay, he was yelling all the way down.

Four Arms managed to climb back up. He saw that Steel was starting to fall. He jumped onto the cable and helped him up. "Are you still looking for me?"

"Second target locked on." One of the SACT troops said over the comms. "Permission to fire?"

"We got our alien." Steel responded. "Stand down." Four Arms jumped down the cable. Steel however needed a lift. "Well, what are you waiting for, a pretty please? Get me down off of here."

Shortly...

Sadie, Jack, Raf, and June were in the Rust Bucket as it drove away from the bridge.

"Not even Vince could have survived that blast and that fall, right?" Sadie asked, wanting to know if Vince was dead. He'd been the first human she'd wanted to kill.

"You're asking the wrong guy." Jack responded. "I thought he was gone for good the last time."

June stepped on the brakes when she saw lieutenant Steel and a few SACT troop in the way. Steel walked over. Without being asked to, June rolled down the window that was adjacent to the seat that Jack was in.

"Now why is it that you people are always around when aliens show up?" When Jack heard this, he covered up the Omnitrix.

"Really? Is that a fact?" June said in a way to throw off Steel. "We hadn't noticed."

"Yeah, maybe it is just a coincidence." Steel responded. "Maybe we'll cross paths some time." He took a few steps back. "Drive carefully. Lots of wierd stuff out there."

"Yeah. You're telling us." Jack said as the Rust Bucket drove off.

Nemesis...

On the Decepticon warship, the faceless Decepticon spymaster Soundwave was looking over the news footage of Four Arms' fight against Vince. On his visor, an image of Vince's now mutated form was moved next to a picture of Arcee in her robot mode. He was compiling something. And this didn't seem good. He already had Jack's equal, a Decepticon that looked like Arcee but was very dark purple and orange. This was all part of something called project negative.

Something's going on. But, as the Storyteller says, 'That is a story for another day.'

Chapter end.


	22. Breakout

United States Penitentiary near Pollock, Louisiana...

At the prison where Hex(a sorcerer who a month ago was defeated by Jack Darby, Gwen Tennyson, and the Autobot Arcee) was kept, there was an attack made on the prison. One of the guards was sent soaring towards the door of one of the solitary confinement cells. Three explosions went off, all of them erupting into purple fireballs and white smoke. Out of one of the clouds of smoke walked a girl who wore a magenta coat with purple at the ends, underneath which were long purple boots with black straps around them. Her name was Charmcaster. As two of the guards ran at her, Charmcaster tossed an energy sphere at each of them, both of which exploded, sending the guards flying against the wall. One of the guards closed the door to a section of a prison in hopes of stopping Charmcaster, but that did nothing to slow her down. She flung more of energy spheres at the door, causing it to blow open, and knocking out the guy that was holding down the door. Charmcaster came to a door that had bars at eye level. She looked through them to see that she had arrived at the right cell. She unzipped her bag, which looked like a face, reached into it and sprinkled a bit of a white glitter dust on it.

She chanted the words for a spell. "Fallum Quarca Daminigan!" The door of the cell burst open, revealing that the one who Charmcaster was trying(and succeeding at) to break out was Hex, who was meditating in his cell.

"Charmcaster." Hex spoke in his normal calm voice. "I've been waiting."

"Major jail breaks aren't exactly easy to pull off, you know." Charmcaster retorted.

Hex would not stand for Charmcaster's sass. "You will show me respect my dear niece." Hex's Eye glew yellow. "Or you will suffer the consequences."

"Yes uncle." Charmcaster bowed her head in submission.

"My staff."

Charmcaster unzipped her bag and pulled out Hex's Staff of Ages. "Uh uh the magic must've drained out of it or something. It doesn't work, but I swear it's not my fault."

Hex held out his hand and the staff went into his grasp. "It's powers can be brought to life, but only in the hands of a master magician." Hex fired a bolt of yellow lightning out of the staff that Charmcaster thought was going to hit her, but instead split and went around her, hitting two guards in the process. "Now, to find the keystone. The moment of alignment is nearly upon us." Hex fired a bolt of energy that made a hole in the wall of his cell, a wall that had newspaper clippings of an article that had Lucky Girl as the subject. "Once I have completed the ritual and gained its powers, I shall take revenge on the one responsible for imprisoning me in this festering sewer." He and Charmcaster stood on the metal door that had been blown off its hinges. The door then flew in a manner similar to a flying carpet.

Outside of Las Vegas, Nevada...

A bus full of senior citizens had gone off the road and was teetering over the edge. The oldtimers were panicking, their golden years about to be cut short, that is they would've been if someone hadn't lifted the bus up and put all six of its wheels back on the ground. It was Four Arms who saved the day. He tore off the back of the bus so that there was a safer way to get off of the bus.

"It's okay everybody." Four Arms assured the old folks. "Everything's alright." Four Arms turned and started to walk off.

"So, you're not gonna help us off, Mr Strong man guy?" An old man complained. "Who raised you anyway?"

"Oh be a dear and carry me, will you?" An old lady asked. "My bunions are killing me." If you're wondering what bunions are, don't look them up.

"Your bunions my butt! My new hips out of whack! I'm first!"

"Okay, if you insist." Four Arms agreed. He helped get the seniors off of the bus.

Inside the Rust Bucket, Gwen, who the group had recently met up with again was looking at images of magic related things such as Stonehenge, potions and spells, and witches. She held the mask that she used while she used the guise of Lucky Girl to sorta compete with Jack. "Lucky girl. I wish that you were more than just another Halloween costume."

Jack walked through the door, exhausted, or maybe he was annoyed. "Ugh. Sometimes this hero stuff gets old."

"You should be proud of yourself Jack." June explained to Jack. She was sitting in the driver's seat with Sadie in the one next to her. "Those folks would've been in a real pickle without you."

"I know." Jack rubbed the back of his head. "But I'd just like one regular summer day. One where I could just hangout all day long and do nothing. You know, like Gwen."

Gwen heard this and was a bit annoyed. "You should appreciate what you have. I only got to be Lucky Girl for a few hours."

"Really? Was that all? 'Cause with how much fun you seemed to be having, it seemed like you were Lucky Girl for a few weeks." Arcee tried to assure Gwen that she wasn't worthless.

"But still, the worst part was when all those grannies wanted me to go with them to some lameo magic convention in Vegas." Jack sat down on the couch next to Raf. "With them? As if."

"Magic convention?" Gwen got excited.

Somewhere in the desert...

In a canyon, Hex and Charmcaster were standing in front of an open fire. Hex chanted a spell. "Darkara Dorokey Aghosto!" Hex tossed a powder on the flame. An image of an item that looked like one of the Charms of Bezel appeared in the smoke. "The Keystone of Bezel! Reveal your location to me!" A symbol with a blinking yellow dot appeared. It was a map to the location of the location of the item that Hex sought after.

"Okay, well, nice seeing you again uncle. I'm outta here." Charmcaster tried to get away, but Hex fired a bolt of lightning from his staff of ages at a boulder that was in Charmcaster's path, causing Charmcaster to stop in her tracks.

Hex's eyes were glowing. "You may leave my service only when I saw you can!"

"Yes uncle."

Magician's Lamp Casino in Las Vegas...

The group had decided to go to the Magic Convention that Jack was told about the previous night by the geezers.

They entered it hoping to find magical artifacts and the like, but all they found were what you would find in a dollar store. You know, stuff like those rings that you have to move a certain way to separate. There was also a group of, for lack of a better term, nerds playing Dungeons and Dragons.

Gwen saw the sign and was disappointed immensely. "Magician of the year expo? It's all cheap junk and gross out tricks."

"The feeling is mutual." Jack agreed with his cousin. "I thought it was going to be magic magic, not cheesy magic. If we wanted to see that we'd had gone to Wisconsin."

June placed her hand on her niece's shoulder. "I'm sorry that this was a bust." June conforted Gwen. "But as long as we're here, we might as well look around." June noticed that someone was missing, and it wasn't Miko. "Where's Arcee?"

Meanwhile, in the desert just outside of Vegas...

Arcee in her motorcycle mode drove towards a green muscle car that had black racing stripes. Leaning against the door of said car was Kevin Levin.

When Arcee was a few feet away from Kevin, she transformed.

"Arcee, good to see you again. How's that ID mask working for you?" Kevin approached the Autobot.

"Oh, pretty good, but I just wish it felt more, natural to be that size. Got anything that can fix that?"

Kevin opened the trunk of his car and looked for something. "Ah ha! No. That's not it." After a few minutes, Kevin found what he was looking for. "Here it is. A mass conversion chip." He held a small black box that he opened to show a microchip inside it.

"So what does it do?" Arcee looked at the tiny computer component that Kevin had in his hands.

"When attached to power armor, it allows the wearer to shrink down and then return to their original size. And, the makers of this baby made it so that you don't lose relative strength when you shrink. If anything, you gain it."

"Cool. Now, two questions. First, how much? And second, what's the minimum size I can become."

"Since it puts stress on the chip to convert certain amounts of mass to energy, I'd say about five foot five. And for the cost, um how does eighty sound?"

"Hmm." Arcee scratched her chin. "Sold." She held out her hand as she mentally transferred eighty thousand taydens into Kevin's account. Kevin got a text on his phone and saw that the transaction had been a success. He handed Arcee the box and got in his car.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

"Where are you going?" Arcee asked.

"Vegas. I'm Gwen's ride home. Wanna come?"

"Well, I was supposed to be with the others, so sure, why not?"

Back at the 'magic' convention...

Gwen walked up to a booth that had a rather large woman selling some jewelry. Gwen asked: "I don't suppose you have any real magical artifacts?"

"What you see is what you get honey." The lady who was working the stand said. Gwen's shoulders slumped.

Gwen saw a blue and gold armlet that a red charm that Gwen recognized. She picked it up and placed it on her right wrist. "I'll take it." Her smile returned.

June, Jack, and Raf walked up. "Find something you like?" Raf asked.

"Yeah, it kinda reminds me of-" Gwen was cut off as the screaming of people was heard.

Outside, a man who was in a strait jacket was dangling upside down from a helicopter that had its rear propeller damaged to the point where smoke came from it.

The group had run out to see the incident occur.

"Something tells me that's not part of the act." June shook her head. She and Gwen looked at Jack.

"Oh right." Jack ran into an alley.

The helicopter flew through some power lines, cutting them. One of the flailing wire just barely missed hitting the man, but the another one hit the rope, causing it to ignite. The helicopter was starting to lose height, but Jack, as Stinkfly managed to provide the helicopter with the necessary lift to remain level. "Everything's under control." Stinkfly buzzed. However for some f**king strange reason, the rear rotor came off of the helicopter and flew towards the crowd. "Or not." Stinkfly had looked down to see the improbable event that happened right before his eyestalks.

June was unaware as the rotor came flying at her like a saw blade. Gwen ran towards June and shouted: "June! Look out!" June looked and was frozen in fear. Gwen jumped onto the roof of one of the cars that was parked between her and June and slid over it. She then jumped onto the roof of the second one and did a backflip off of it. The gem on her gauntlet flashed red as she pushed June out of the way of the falling blade.

"How'd you do that Gwen?" June was shocked that her niece was capable of such a feet.

Gwen looked at the gauntlet. "Just lucky, I guess." Was her response. She got and idea.

She ran into the Rust Bucket. Since I respect her privacy, I'll stay out here. So, yah wanna talk? Oh crap, she's back.

Gwen exited the Rust Bucket with her Lucky Girl costume on minus the mask. She placed the mask on.

Meanwhile, Stinkfly spat out a strand of goo at the side of a building. He then spat four more out of his eye stalks. Combined, they stopped the Helicopter from moving. "Just hold on a few seconds longer!" Stinkfly said. The rope that held him up snapped, he screamed as he fell to what was most certainly going to be his death. Stinkfly flew after him.

Lucky Girl jumped onto the hood of a car, then onto the roof of a bus. She then caught the falling man and the two of them landed on an awning.

Stinkfly landed and he couldn't believe what he saw. "Lucky girl?"

The crowd was cheering at the success of the rescue.

"Bet you don't me about cramping your superhero style.

"As if. I'm happy that I finally get a little backup." Stinkfly said. "But how'd you get your lucky girl powers back?"

Later in the Rust Bucket...

"It looks like it's one of the charms of bezel." Gwen held the gauntlet up to a picture of the Luck Charm that was on her computer.

"But you destroyed all those in that cemetery fighting that Hex creep." Raf mentioned.

"I thought I did but this is the legendary lost keystone." Gwen exposited. "It's rumored to increase 10 times the powers and the skills of the one who possesses it."

"Well, it seems another legend is fact, not fiction." June mentioned. She put a tally mark on a chart that had true legends vs untrue legends. True had six, untrue had three.

"You are so lucky!" Jack said.

"It's not luck."

"It's magic."

Later, in the convention...

"and remember, the magician of the year will be crowned in just a few hours during the solar eclipse." A bald man who wore black suspenders, a white long sleeve button up shirt, and a red bow tie, which by the way, is cool, said. "Now, please welcome our next contestant, the Amazing Allen!"

In a puff of smoke, a man with long blond hair who wore a long sleeve aqua marine shirt and teal pants appeared. He had with him a purple box that had a latch with an orange padlock on it.

The crowd applauded him.

"For my first trick, I'll need a volunteer." He spoke with either a german or a swedish accent.

Gwen looked beside her and noticed that Jack wasn't there. He was on the stage.

"Jack Darby, at your service!"

"What's he up to?" June squinted as her son definitly had something planned.

"And boy goes in," Allen helped Jack into the box. "But what comes out will amaze and surprise you!"

"Yeah, they won't be the only ones." Jack smirked as Allen closed the lid. Jack readied the Omnitrix and had Wildmutt selected.

"Abra-cadabra!" Allen shouted while pointing at the box with both of his hands. The interior of the box glew green as it shook. It finally burst and Jack, as Jackwolf instead of Wildmutt jumped up and landed on the stage.

Jackwolf howled, and the crowd was cheering none the less. As the general audiance cheered at what they either they thought was real magic or very good practical special effects, a red spiraling cloud approached the skylight, melting the glass when the two substances came into contact. The cloud flew over the crowd and arced at Jackwolf and Allen, causing an explosion which sent them back. The red smoke cleared to reveal who was inside. Hex and Charmcaster.

"Hex!" Gwen said when she saw the man that tried to kill her in New Orleans.

"Hey! Wait your turn, pal." Allen, who was standing between Hex and Charmcaster and Jackwolf, said. "You're ruining my act."

Hex's eyes glowed yellow. "I have no time for amateurs." He turned to face Allen. He levetated Allen up and tossed him at Jackwolf, who ducked to avoid being hit by the performer, but his timing was off so he too was booted off the stage.

He turned to face Gwen. "Give me the keystone of bezel!" He saw that this was a 'magic convention'. "If it's magic you want, it's magic you shall have!" He pointed his staff at the crowd, causing red flames to briefly appear then disappear, leaving red smoke in their wake.

"Hex is up to his old tricks." June said as the rest of the people got out of there.

"Looks like a job for lucky girl." Gwen ran off.

Outside, Kevin's car pulled up. He and Sadie got out.

"The heck's happening in there?" Sadie asked as she saw people flee.

"Don't know," Kevin touched his car. His skin and clothes turned metallic green. "but we might a well find out."

"Hand over the keystone, or I shall destroy you all!" Hex pointed his staff at the people who were still inside.

"You forgot to say pretty please."

Kevin and Sadie ran in.

"Hex!" Sadie shouted, getting the attention of Hex.

"That voice. It belongs to that of the golem."

"Did he just call you a mindless clay drone?"

"That's what a golem is? He's going down!" Sadie ran towards Hex. She performed a hand pose and said, "Rider, transform!" She was in her robot mode, but it was smaller than normal.

"Wait, if the golem is here, then the man wolf is the shape changer."

"Yeah. And this big bad wolf is gonna knock your house down." Jackwolf had gotten back up.

"The keystone and lucky girl. And add to that golem and the shape changer and this truly is a-oh!" Jackwolf tackled Hex, sending him back stage. "Charmcaster, d-do something!"

"Yes, uncle." Metal disks came out of Charmcaster's bag. She launched them at Jackwolf, distracting him and allowing Hex to launch the Loboan off of him. He landed near Kevin.

"Kevin? What're you doing here?"

"Darby? Is that you? What's with the fur coat?"

"It's a long story. Right now we gotta stop this creep." Jackwolf got back on his feet. He and Kevin ran into battle.

Lucky Girl came running up from behind Charmcaster, who saw this in her peripheral vision and flung a few of the disks at her, sending her back.

A bowling pin was tossed at Charmcaster by June. Charmcaster made one of the disks roll towards June and grow to the size of the gigantic penny that was in the Batcave.

"Aah!" June yelled as she tried to get away from it. June jumped into a booth to avoid it. It did however get sent rolling at Kevin, who ran at it. He made his fist larger and punched right through it.

As Charmcaster watched this, Gwen had gotten up and performed a flying round kick, knocking the seventeen year old sorceress across the stage. "Since you're palling around with hex, you're no friend of mine."

"There are two kinds of luck, child." Hex had grabbed Gwen's wrist. "Let me show you the bad kind."

"Guess what? I'm not just lucky anymore. I am totally kick ass!" Gwen flipped Hex onto his back.

Hex got back up and pointed his staff at Gwen. "Even with your new powers, you are no match for a master magician! Now give me the keystone!

Jackwolf was pushing the stand that held a speaker up. "Finder's keepers, skull face." Jackwolf said.

Charmcaster zoomed in behind Gwen. "And loser's weepers." She tossed two stone figurines at Gwen's feet.

"Is that the best you got?" The stones grew into Wildmutt sized monsters that were made of black stone and walked on all fours. Their heads looked like human skulls. They had light purple lines around their eyes, mouth and their body. They growled at Lucky Girl. "Then again, that's pretty good."

As the rock monsters attacked Lucky Girl, Jackwolf pounced on Charmcaster and pinned her down.

"Uh!" Charmcaster groaned. Jackwolf tried to bite her, but she was stronger then she looked and was able to hold back the Loboan. "Get off of me, dog breath!"

"Make me silvy locks." Jackwolf mocked.

Charmcaster fired a stone projectile out of her bag at Jackwolf, knocking him off of her.

"See you around, Balto." Charmcaster flung about a dozen stone spheres at the stunned Jackwolf. They spheres exploded, destroying the floor that was Jackwolf stood on. However, he did manage to catch himself so that he didn't fall to the floor. Jackwolf's arms were outstretched.

"Ha! It seems this dog knows your tricks." Jackwolf was going to pull himself up, but he saw that Charmcaster had tossed two more spheres, one at each of Jackwolf's hands. "Oh, son of a bitch." Jackwolf fell down into the hole.

As Gwen was avoiding the rock monsters' attacks, she bumped into Kevin.

"Kevin?"

"Gwen?"

"What're you doing here?" They asked each other.

"Talk later. Butt kicking now!" Kevin grabbed one of the rock monsters and tried to restrain it, but was unsuccessful. He was tossed off the rock monster. Gwen took hold of both of them and smashed them into each other, destroying them.

June pushed the thing that is used to saw someone in half at charmcaster, knocking the unaware sorceress over. Kevin, Miko, and Arcee came over.

Hex approached. His eyes were glowing yellow. "Enough!" He waved his staff, which sent out a shockwave that sent the four flying past the curtains and out the door. Landing in a hedge maze that was outside.

The flew through the walls of the maze, which broke their fall. Arcee was now back as Sadie and Kevin had lost his metal properties.

"Where'd Raf and Jack go?" Sadie asked. Four stone figurines rolled up at the group's feet.

"Run?" Kevin questioned as the figurines started to shake.

"Oh yeah." Sadie said. She had seen her fair share of no win scenarios.

They ran from the rock monsters. They came to a turn in the maze and ran down it. They hid behind the wall of another pathway. They breathed a sigh of relief as the rock monsters ran by them, however, it was back to panic mode as one of the rock monsters ran back and turned down the way that they ran, but it failed to spot them.

A spiral of flame came out of the casino and landed at a t junction in the path. When it touch ground, there was a cloud of pinkish purple smoke. Charmcaster and Hex walked out of the smoke.

"Circle around, then drive them toward me like lambs to the slaughter." Hex commanded.

"Yes, uncle." Charmcaster complied. She ran off to find them.

Gwen, Kevin, June, and Sadie came to a different t-junction in the maze. "This way!" June and Kevin ran one way, Gwen and Sadie went the other.

June and Kevin ran down the maze, they came to a dead end. They were about to be attacked by one of the rock monsters, but Jackwolf came down and landed between his mom and Kevin and the monster. He used his sonic roar attack to shatter the stone that the monster was made of.

The Omnitrix blinked red and beeped as Jack was reverted back into his human form.

"Jack?" June asked. "You ok?"

"Yeah. What about you two? And where's Lucky Girl and Arcee?"

Gwen had been separated from Sadie. She was sneaking along the side of one of the walls of the maze. She heard rustling and assumed it was Hex. "Alright, Hex, time for a surprise party." She jumped up and did a flip over the wall of them maze and after kicking the person who was on the other side of the maze, she found that the one who was doing the rustling was Charmcaster, who after being kicked, dropped her bag, which Gwen picked up. "Not so tough without your bag of tricks, are you."

"I-I didn't mean to hurt anybody. My uncle made me do it, I swear." Charmcaster was on the verge of crying.

"Why should we believe you?" Gwen makes a valid point. Why should they trust her?

"My name's Charmcaster. I'm Hex's niece. You know what he's like." Charmcaster explained. "He doesn't take no for an answer. I can help you! He's after the keystone in your bracelet."

"Duh. He wants it to magnify his powers. I know what this is."

"But that's not all. If he performs the Ritual of Bezel with the keystone at the highest point during the eclipse, he can recreate all the other charms you destroyed."

Hex's voice was heard. "Making new friends, Charmcaster?" Hex phased through the wall of the hedge maze. He had Jack, Kevin, and Sadie hovering in the air. "Give me the keystone, or watch them suffer a painful demise!"

"I won't let you do this, uncle!" She took her bag from Gwen, unzipped the opening and several bats that were made out of the same stone as the monsters that had been recently destroyed flew out of her bag and at Hex.

"Charmcaster! How dare you betray me!" Hex tried to strike the stone bats with his staff, but they got out of the way and picked him up and lifted him out of the hedge maze and dropped him in a pool before flying off.

The three that were suspended in the air were dropped. Jack and Kevin were hurt, but not too badly. Sadie was not harmed at all.

"Ow." Kevin groaned as he got up. "Why didn't you catch us?" He asked Sadie

"Sorry. But I was falling too. Remember?"

"I guess you are legit." Gwen said after the others joined up with her and Charmcaster.  
"Now, let's go finish the job before hex can dry off."

"My uncle's gonna be really, really mad at me, isn't he?"

"Ok, then go with my aunt and Arcee. Jack, Kevin, and I will handle your uncle."

Charmcaster pulled Gwen into a tight hug, which Gwen felt was too tight and was trying to get out of. "Oh, thank you! Thank you! I will never forget this."

Jack, Gwen, and Kevin ran off to finish off Hex, or at least try to. It's funny. To them, this is how things are gonna be in a few years, Jack, Gwen, and Kevin running off to fight the bad guy.

"Uh, is it me, or was that a bit weird?" Gwen asked. She knew something was not right.

"You're a superhero now. Trust me, people act weird around you." Kevin replied.

They came to the pool deck to see Hex standing on top of a water spout.

"Uh, my watch is still in the red. We have to wait."

"We can't!" Gwen shouted.

"Gwen's right, we might only get one shot at this creep." Kevin touched the concrete and his skin and clothes changed to the same material.

"Uh!" Gwen moaned as she tried to jump at Hex, but found out that her powers were gone.

Hex's water pedisol came down to the same level that the three future teammates were. Kevin tried jumping at Hex, but the sorcerer's eyes were glowing yellow, which allowed Hex to levitate Kevin. He grabbed Gwen by the wrist. "Give me the key!" He demanded. He must've saw that the keystone was gone and let go. "Huh? Mm. We'll see each other soon, and finish our business then." Kevin was released from his grasp as Hex teleported away in a cloud of red smoke.

"Uh, what just happened?" Kevin scratched his head in confusion.

Gwen looked at her gauntlet and gasped. "The keystone! It-it's gone!" Gwen realised what happened. "Charmcaster." She growled.

On the roof tops...

Hex walked up to Charmcaster, who was waiting for him on top of one of the taller buildings. "Playing innocent was genius," Hex complimented his niece's quick thinking. "Though you should have informed me first!"

"Yes, uncle, I was wrong not to, but I had to think fast when the Lucky Girl surprised me." Charmcaster placed the keystone into Hex's hand.

"No matter. Soon I shall have enough power to destroy all my enemies and rule the world!" Hex glanced at the building known as the Stratosphere Las Vegas.

Outside of the Rust Bucket...

June and Sadie were being helped walk over to the Rust Bucket by Kevin and Jack. June sighed as she took a seat on the step to get in. "I turned away for just a second, and wham! When Arcee and I came to, Charmcaster was gone."

"All that 'my uncle made me do it' stuff was just an act." Gwen realized that she had been taken advantage of. "She needed to get close enough to me to steal the keystone. Some hero I turned out to be." Gwen took off the Lucky Girl mask.

"Right now all you should care about is how to stop Hex and Charmcaster before they recreate those other charms."

"She said the ritual would be performed at the highest point during the eclipse." Jack wanted to cheer up his cousin, but there were more pressing matters.

"And the highest point around here is?" Kevin asked. Jack, Gwen, and Kevin looked behind them to see the Stratosphere Las Vegas.

Meanwhile...

Hex and Charmcaster made their way onto the top of the tower by levating themselves onto it. When they landed, they heard the dinging of an elevator that was just about to open. When it did, there were four or five people in it. Hex pointed his staff at the door. The man who was closest to the buttons was rapidly pressing the close door button. The door closed before a beam of energy hit the elevator and melted the door shut.

"I do not want to be disturbed." As Hex said this, the moon was beginning to move into position for the solar eclipse. When the keystone began to glow, Hex held it up and chanted: "Barban hextida zerzam. Barban hextida zerzam." The keystone hovered out of Hex's hand and flew up to the top of the radio tower just as the moon was almost in position. The section of the moon that was covering the sun appeared to be made out of lava.

On the ground...

The Rust Bucket and Kevin's car drove up.

Kevin and Jack got out of his car and Gwen, Sadie, and June got out of the Rust Bucket. Raf was still inside as June had instructed.

"What's up with the moon?" Kevin asked as he and Jack drove over.

"Hex must be performing the ritual." Gwen reasoned.

"And that means we're running out of time." Sadie added. "And judging by the speed at which the moon's moving into position, the eclipse is only a few minutes away."

"Jack, Kevin, I guess it's all up to you guys."

"We'll need some help. Still feeling lucky?"

"What can I do without my powers?"

"Hey, you never needed magic powers to kick ass before." Jack cheered his cousin up.

The elevator that came from the rooftop returned. Gwen saw that the police were preventing people were entering.

"Elevator's out. How are we gonna get up there?"

"Easy for Stinkfly." Jack tried to activate the Omnitrix, but found that it was still in the red. "Oh, man, that stinks! Stupid watch isn't working yet."

"But that window washer's platform is." June pointed to the platform that was used to clean the insanely high up windows.

"And I have an idea for my own ride." Jack ran back into the rust bucket and dialed Ratchet's number. "Come on. Pick up."

"Hello?"

"Ratchet, it's me, Jack, I need a ground bridge right here, right now."

"Where are you?"

"In the Rust Bucket, I need to get something from the base."

"Hold on." Ratchet hung up a few seconds before a smaller version of the normally sixty foot tall vortex appeared a few yards from him. Jack ran through it before it closed.

In the autobot base, Jack saw Miko watching not a TV show, but the news of all things. But more specific, Miko was watching the report about Hex's current actions. Smokescreen was watching too.

"Miko!"

"Jack? What're you doing here?" She ran up and hugged him when she heard his voice.

"I need to get something."

"And what would that be?"

"The hoverboard that Tetrax gave me that I then gave to you. I need it to get to where Hex and Charmcaster are."

"Charmcaster? Who's that?" Smokescreen asked. "Is she single?"

"She's Hex's niece." Jack replied. "And I don't know if she has a boyfriend."

"Wait, Hex, as in the guy with the skull for a face that we met back in New Orleans?"

"Yeah, he broke out of prison. So tell me, where is that hoverboard?"

"Oh that, it's right here." Miko tossed Jack the folded up hoverboard.

"Thanks." Jack ran back to the ground bridge arch. "Ratchet, back to the same location."

Ratchet, who was hard at work perfecting the synthetic energon formula activated the ground bridge.

Before Jack could exit the base, Smokescreen managed to say to Jack: "Tell Arcee to call me."

"Barban hextida zerzam. Barban hextida zerzam." Hex chanted.

"Did you really think you could ditch me that easily?" Lucky Girl asked. Hex turned to see Lucky Girl 'hovering'. "Now give me back the keystone, or deal with the awesome powers of Lucky Girl!"

"This is totally bogus. She can't have any powers, it's some kind of stupid trick." Charmcaster told her uncle.

Hex levitated Lucky Girl, as well as June and Sadie and Kevin, the latter two were holding her up. Hex tossed them onto the roof of the building, where they were on the level below Hex and Charmcaster.

Hex aimed his staff at the trio. "Your silly stunt has gained you nothing."

"You should know better than anyone that sometimes magic is about misdirection." Lucky Girl responded.

As if on cue, Jack flew in on the hoverboard and rammed into Hex.

"Wahoo! I never knew how much fun this thing is." Jack was having a blast. He saw that his mom was waving her arms at him. " Hey, mom!"

June was trying to warn her son. "Jack, hex is-" Hex climbed onto the top of the hoverboard and kicked Jack's legs out from under him, causing him to nearly fall off of the Hoverboard.

"Uh! Aah!" Jack exclaimed as he stumbled.

"I shall not be denied my destiny as ruler of the world!"

"That ain't gonna happen!"

Hex swung his staff at Jack's left hand, which caused him to lose part of his grip on the hover board. The green and grey piece of alien tech began to spin until Jack got his hand back on the board and managed to get Hex to cause the board to tip towards his side.

Hex stumbled a bit and almost fell off. When he regained his balance, he struck where Jack's right hand was, only to have Jack move his hand out of the way so that the teen didn't get injured. This continued as the board flew through the city,

"Hey, Charmcaster!" Charmcaster looked to see Lucky Girl, Kevin, and Sadie running towards her. Kevin's skin and clothes were now made out of the same material as Arcee's armor, which meant that he was now blue with pink trim. "Heard any good stories lately?"

Charmcaster flung three stone spheres at the trio, sending Lucky Girl and Kevin onto a roller coaster that was on the top of the tower. She flung another sphere at the control panel, starting up the ride. She must've forgotten about Sadie as she was punched into a wall with the force of a speeding motorcycle.

Charmcaster quickly recovered, not suffering any life threatening injuries due to her magical powers. He tossed five stone spheres that grew into golems that attacked Sadie, one of them tackling her, sending it and Sadie onto the lower level. The disguised autobot began fighting against the rock monsters.

Hex meanwhile continued his duel against Jack. When he went in to strike Jack's left hand, Jack saw that the Omnitrix had recharged when he pulled away. It automatically activated and the first one that was there was Four Arms.

"Yes! It's time for four arms of fun!" While Jack was distracted, Hex struck the area of the hoverboard that was in front of Jack's face, causing him to fall off. Jack immediately transformed. "Huh? Wildvine? Eh, it could be worse."

Wildvine used one of his stretching arms to grapple onto a sign and used that to get himself back onto the hoverboard. He and Hex were now flying randomly, but were heading back in the direction of the tower.

The hoverboard crashed near Charmcaster, both Hex and Wildvine were thrown off of it. Wildvine went to reach for the Staff of Ages, but stopped when Charmcaster tossed two spheres in his direction. Neither one hit Wildvine, but they hit one of the supports for the roller coaster that Gwen and Kevin were on, causing that section of track to be destroyed.

Wildvine gasped when he saw this.

"We're not going to make it!" Kevin screamed. "Aah!"

"Gwen!" Wildvine went to rescue the two. He extended his leds to get over the edge and he then stretched out his arms to get grab onto the car that was closest to him.

The train accidently slammed into the side of the building, accidently knocking Gwen out. "Aah!" She screamed as she fell.

However, Wildvine caught her. "Gotcha!"

The moon was now completely in the path of the sun, meaning it was now a full solar eclipse.

"I'll take it from here, charmcaster."

"That would be a big no, uncle." Charmcaster turned to face her uncle. "Change in plans. I get the power of the keystone and the charms, and you get squat."

Hex tried to retrieve his staff, but Charmcaster sent him flying into a ventilation pipe.

"I just needed a master magician to perform the re-creation ritual. Now, where was I?" Clouds began to spiral around the tower. Charmcaster looked up to see a single sphere of light split into five that surrounded the eclipsed sun. "The power of bezel will soon be mine!" The sorceress proclaimed.

Gwen picked up the Staff of Ages. "Show's over, Charmcaster!" Gwen, Wildvine, Kevin, June, and Sadie, who had defeated the last of the rock monsters that Charmcaster used to attack her, stood before her.

Charmcaster looked behind her and saw that Gwen held the staff, which she believed Gwen would be unable to use. "Ha ha ha ha! That staff only works in the hands of a master magician." Charmcaster was blasted by a bolt of energy. "Aah!"

"Okay, how come that worked?"

"Beats me, I thought you were gonna beat her with it." Kevin joked.

Wildvine reached up and grabbed the reformed Charms of Bezel, destroying them. When they were destroyed, a vortex opened and purple smoke came out of the staff and Charmcaster.

"Do you know what you've done?"

"Saved the day?"

Before Hex to insult Wildvine, the smoke that came out of the Staff of Ages and Charmcaster came out of him. "Aah!" He was in pain.

The Keystone landed in front of Gwen as the eclipse ended. She picked it up and placed it into the gauntlet.

Gwen sighed. "Looks like the magic's gone. And lucky girl along with it."

"Ah, don't be too bummed. There's other ways you can be a hero." Jack said.

"Riding on a hoverboard?"

"Sure, go ahead, but be careful."

"Okay Jack." Gwen ran over to the device that Jack used to get up.

"Wait! Wait a minute!" Jack tried to get Gwen's attention. Jack grabbed the Staff of Ages and decided to put in somewhere safe. The eyes on the skull glowed Autobot optic blue.

"Woo!" Gwen was enjoying herself. Unbeknownst to her, the keystone shimmered.

Little did they know, but this whole confrontation was being watched by a metal bird which sent the footage to its master.

On the Nemesis...

The Con without a face looked at the footage of Hex and Charmcaster's defeat. He thought to himself that one of them would be a potential ally.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. The reason that the Staff of Ages responded to Jack's touch is in a way similar as to why Kai will be able to pull excalibur out of the stone. Jack won't be able to use it to the degree that Hex can or Charmcaster will be able to, but it does respond to a certain kind of spark. Not the Anodite one that gives Gwen her powers. No, the spark Jack has is, well, for lack of a better phrase, more than meets the eye.


	23. Wrath of the Antagonizer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When picking up a hitchhiker, something bad happens soon after. No. He doesn't kill everyone and steal the Rust Bucket. There's this woman who calls herself the Antagonizer. She seems harmless enough, just wait until you meet her pets. Yeah. This is gonna pretty weird.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the chapter that I'm the most proud of. It's the only one that has nothing reused from either Transformers Prime or Ben 10.

Somewhere in the Mojave Desert...

The Rust Bucket was driving down the long narrow road that went through the desert. On both sides were nothing but sand, rocks, and cacti. There were several types of desert plants all around. Inside the RV, Jack, June, and Raf were sitting around the table that was in the RV. Arcee was driving.

Raf yawned. "Why am I so bored? I've lived in a desert all my life, so why is driving through a desert boring?"

"I don't know." Arcee said while yawning. "But just be glad Miko's not here."

"Yeah, she'd be trying to make noise to stop everyone from going crazy." June was starting to doze off. "But that wouldn't help."

Outside the Rust Bucket, there was a person who was wearing a blue jumpsuit with a yellow line down the middle of it. Attached to the jumpsuit were black boots and black arm guards. The gender and race of this person was unknown. On the person's left arm was a gauntlet that had a screen and various knobs and buttons on it. He had on his back a rather large backpack and a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He saw the vehicle that was known as the Rust Bucket. It was about a mile away. He held out his hand to try to get the driver's attention.

Back in the Rust Bucket, Arcee saw the lone person. "Guys, do you see that?" Arcee spoke up.

Jack looked out the window and saw the man who was trying to hitchhike.

"What's he doing out here?" June asked. "Arcee, stop here. Let's talk to him."

The Rust Bucket came to a stop. The mysterious man jogged over to the door and stood a few yards away from the door. Three people that he would know as Jack, June, and Raf stepped out of the RV.

"Hi." Jack held out his hand. The wanderer shook his hand.

"Hello." The man/woman said. "Who are you guys?"

"My name's June, and this is my son Jack, and his friend Raf." June said. "And what's yours?" She asked.

"That's my business." The wanderer said.

Jack looked at this strange man with a look of intrigue. "So, where are you heading?"

"Canterbury Commons." He said.

"Where's that?" Raf asked.

"It's about fifty miles down the road." The wanderer replied. "Could you guys give me a lift?" He asked.

"I don't know. We've just met you and we're not sure if you're a criminal or not."

"I assure you, I'm not a criminal. I'm just someone who travels around the country."

"So you're a tramp?" Jack asked.

"No. But you didn't answer my question, can you guys give me a lift?" He asked. "I'll pay you." He reached into his right pocket and pulled out a brown leather wallet. He pulled out ten twenty dollar bills. He held them to June.

"Where'd you get two hundred dollars?" June asked.

"Whenever I stop in a town, I always offer to help out." He said. "But if you don't want the money, I'll help you with something."

As he spoke, June stared into the traveler's eyes. She had learned how to spot a liar, but not from her plumber training, ability to spot a liar came from raising a son. She took the money from him. "Get in." June said.

The four of them got into the Rust Bucket. Arcee saw the new human enter the RV. "June, who's this?" She asked.

"Meet, uh, what's your name?" June asked when she remembered that she didn't get a name from the Lone Wanderer.

The Lone Wanderer sat on the couch that was right in front of the door. "That's my personal business." He said. "But I do have a nickname that people call me."

"What's that?" Raf asked.

"Wash."

Arcee didn't trust this 'Wash' person. He didn't seem quite right.

"Sadie, we're giving Wash here a ride to Canterbury Commons." June said to the disguised Autobot. "Are you against that?"

Arcee sighed. "No ma'am." When everyone was seated, she started driving again.

An hour later...

The Rust Bucket passed by a sign that said Canterbury Commons. However, from the appearance of the sign, one could see that something bad was going on. The green metal sign had what seemed to be a bite taken out of it. However, nobody noticed that, they were talking with the Lone Wanderer.

Jack sat next to the Lone Wanderer.

"Hey, can't believe I didn't ask this, but what're doing heading to this 'Canterbury Commons'?"

"I heard from a traveling salesman that there's some weird stuff going on in that town."

"What kind of wierd stuff?" Arcee asked.

"He didn't say. All he said is that I should see it to believe it." Wash said.

They entered the town. Jack, the Wanderer, and June exited the Rust Bucket. While Arcee stayed inside.

"Well, I guess this is where we part ways." Jack said. "Good luck in this town."

"Thanks. I-" The Lone Wanderer was interrupted by June, who held her hand over the Wanderer's mouth.

"Shhh. I hear something." She whispered.

When Jack and the Wanderer were silent they heard a clicking sound.

"What the?" Was Jack's only response.

They looked in the direction that they thought the sound was coming from. It seemed to get closer, but they didn't see anything come from around the corner of the street. Then something poked Jack's back.

"Raf, what do you want?" Jack asked. He turned to face the Rust Bucket door to see Raf and Arcee standing in the opening of the door, their faces showing pure terror.

"Uh, Jack, what's got your friends acting so weird?"

Arcee pointed at what was behind Jack. He, June, and Wash turned around and saw something that belonged in a science fiction movie- a giant ant, one the size of a lion.

"Nope!" Jack didn't think this over. He activated the Omnitrix and transformed into XLR8 and ran away from there as fast as possible. The lone wanderer reached into his duffle bag and pulled out a 10mm pistol. XLR8 came running back. "Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope! Nope!" He screamed as he cowered on the roof of the Rust Bucket.

"What the hell are these things?" Wash asked. He was hesitant to shoot.

"Ants, but they're giant sized."

"Yeah I know that. But why are they like this? And why did your son turn into one of the aliens from the news?"

June saw the gun the Lone Wanderer held and grabbed it. "Don't know, and no time to explain." She fired the gun at the ant. The bullet didn't kill the Ant, far from it, it bounced off the ant's exoskeleton. June turned around and was about to run, but she saw that there were more ants.

Jack pressed down the omnitrix dial and transformed into Heatblast. He jumped off the Rust Bucket and was about to toss a fireball at the ants, but saw that they were retreating. "They must not like fire." Heatblast said. A cracking sound was heard coming from underneath the Rust Bucket. Arcee and Raf jumped out before a sinkhole opened up underneath the RV, swallowing it into its depths.

"Well, crap." June was pissed. "Now we're stuck."

"Don't worry. I at least have my stuff with me. We can use that to get your RV back." The Lone Wanderer said. "Obviously that old girl can take falling..." He picked up a rock and tossed it into the pit. "One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one thousand-" He heard the rock hit the ground. "160 feet, so it could've survived if this is the vehicle I was told about."

"What do you mean by 'the vehicle you were told about'?" Heatblast asked. The Omnitrix dial blinked red and he was transformed back into Jack, who was scratching his head, thinking the Lone Wanderer meant that he knew that his mom had been a Plumber.

"I've been to a few places that you've been to, where I heard stories about an RV and the people who own it." He said. "Plus I get the news on my Pip Boy, and whenever the alien heroes are sighted, that camper's also there."

"Oh." June said. "But still, what do we do now that it's stuck at the bottom of that pit."

"And we should ask around town what's going on." Arcee said.

"Yeah, Sadie's right." Raf responded. "Something tells me bulletproof giant ants haven't been been around for very long."

"Good idea you two." The wanderer said. "Everybody split up and try to find anyone who's still alive. Try to ask what's going on here."

They split up and went in different directions.

With Jack...

Jack walked down main street of Canterbury Commons.

"Jeeze. This place looks like a war zone." Jack said as he saw that the buildings were in various stages of being destroyed. So only had the windows broken, while some had large sections of brick missing. Jack walked into the door of a starbucks. "Hello, anybody home?" He asked.

"Get down!" A man shouted. "She'll see you."

Jack looked at counter and saw a man with a brown comb over who stood behind a cash register. He ran over and sat against a cabinet. The man who got Jack's attention crouched down a few feet from Jack.

"Hey, haven't seen your face in town before." The man said.

"Yeah, I'm just passing through with my mom and a couple of my friends.

"Yeah, well your mom picked the worst town to stop in. Now the four of you are stuck in our own little slice of Mojave hell."

"Okay, before you explain what's going on, could I get a name from you first?"

"Where are my manners?" He asked himself. "The name's Ernest Roe, but a few folks in town call me Uncle Roe."

"So, Mr Roe, what's going on here? What's with the cow size creepy crawlies?" Jack asked.

Ernest sighed. "Wish I knew where they came from." He said. "A few years ago, this town was one of the best on this stretch of highway, but that all changed one day when these big ants showed up and started raiding a couple of the stores."

"Wait, those bigs things fit through door meant for humans?" Jack asked.

"Well, the thing is, they weren't as big back then. At that time they were the size of a German Shepard, maybe a bit bigger."

"And then what?"

"We first tried using pesticides, but those only slowed them down. Then we tried shooting with whatever weapons Carter had in his store, which worked until they got bigger."

"What do you mean it worked until they got bigger?"

"Well, when the ants were dog sized you could shoot them with anything stronger than a rather strong airsoft gun." Ernest explained. "But as they got bigger, they became resistant to more types of firearms. It took higher and higher caliber bullets to take them down. When they were nearly at the size that they are now, those things could take shots from a fifty caliber rifle and their skin was only dented."

"Yeah, I kinda know that." Jack said. "My mom tried shooting at one of them with this gun that she got off a wanderer that we were traveling with, but the bullet just bounced off the ant."

"Yeah, it's that bad."

"You mentioned a she? Who're you talking about?"

"The ants aren't attacking our town at random." Ernest explained. "They're being led by someone. This wacko who calls herself the Antagonizer." Jack audibly groaned upon hearing that name. "Yeah, I know it's a terribly cheesy name. But don't let cliche-ness of her name fool you, her army of ants are a true force to be reckon with."

With the Lone Wanderer...

The Lone Wanderer, or Wash as he was called by some people, walked down a street. He came to a store that was called 'Craterside Supply'. Wash went into the metal door that looked like it was a replacement. He saw a woman who was in her mid twenties. She had red hair that was in a bun and green eyes. She was wearing blue jeans and a blue long sleeved shirt that had the sleeves rolled up halfway.

"Hey, you're new here." The woman said when she saw Wash enter.

"Yeah, I came into town with these four people I met today. And then-"

"Let me guess, you were attacked by giant ants and then your car was damaged?"

"Close, yes we were attacked by giant ants, but no, June's RV fell down a sinkhole." He said. "By the way, the name's Wash, I didn't get yours."

"Woops, sorry. My name's Moria, Moria Brown." She said. "And welcome to Craterside Supply!"

"Craterside Supply, is this a store?"

"You bet."

"Uh, could you explain the ants? Like where they come from."

"Wish I knew." Moira responded. "All I know is that some crazy lady who's calling herself the Antagonizer is the one controlling them."

"So, what do you do here?" He asked.

Moira leaned up against the cash register. "Well, I run this store. And now I work on trying to make pesticides to kill the Antagonizer's ants.

"And how's it been going for you?"

"Well, I tried using a chemical that I originally made to repel rats, but instead kills them on contact, but that has next to no effect. If anything it makes them stronger."

"Okay... Moving on." Wash said.

"Yeah, now I try to figure out new ways of how to pierce their armor."

"And how's that been going?"

"I haven't had any successes." Moira said. Wash nodded. "But I've been making progress."

With Raf...

Raf walked down the sidewalk and bumped into a boy that seemed to be about Miko's age and was wearing a red baseball cap, blue jeans, and grey and black striped t-shirt. He was running in the opposite direction. He knocked Raf over.

"Sorry!" The blue eyed boy said. He helped Raf up.

"That's okay. But what were you running from?" Raf asked.

"Oh, I'm not running from anything. My friend told me he saw one of the alien heroes from the news run by his house and lead some of the ants away. I'm going to go get Speedyquick's autograph."

"Speedyquick?" Raf laughed. "That's the dumbest name ever. It's XLR8."

"XLR8. Yeah, that does have a nice ring to it." The boy picked up a picture of XLR8 that he dropped. "I'm gonna ask him to sign it 'To my biggest fan, Derek.'"

With Sadie...

Sadie was on top of one of the roof of one of the still standing buildings.

She contacted the Autobot base, she was going to give Optimus her daily report.

"Arcee to base, I got something to report."

"What is it Arcee?" Optimus asked over Arcee's comms.

"We're currently stuck in a town called Canterbury Commons." Arcee sighed after she sat down. "The Rust Bucket fell down a sinkhole, this town's infested with giant ants that are bullet proof, and we picked up a hitchhiker that that refuses to give us a real name, he/she calls him/herself Wash." Arcee laid down. "So how're things going on your end?"

"Bulkhead has been making quite a bit of progress in his recovery, due in part to both Ratchet's surgical skills and Miko aiding in physical therapy." Optimus said. "As for your situation, should I alert agent Fowler?"

"No. Something tells me that if we get Fowler involved, things will get a lot worse."

"Very well. I look forward to speaking to you again Arcee."

With June...

June Darby(or June Tennyson, depending on when you're seeing her) walked out of the bounds of the town. She came to a small valley. In it, she saw a couple of the giant ants walking out of a hole in the side of the rock. She got to a different angle to see that it was that the ants walked through. She saw that it was a door. Now, a normal person wouldn't try to go after giant ants, but if you've been following this, you'd know that June isn't normal by any means. But she wasn't stupid. She knew that if she went in there without a weapon, she'd regret it. But she remembered that she still had one of her holdout weapons; a small blaster that resembled a Smith & Wesson .32 pistol. It could fire five superheated bolts of plasma before it needed to recharge. She entered the door.

Upon entering, June saw that it wasn't like what he expected at all. She was in a square shaped corridor. Along the east wall there were five pipes, while on the west wall, there wasn't much, except for a single light. She walked down the black metal floor until she came to a flight of stairs. June heard clicking coming from the bottom of the steps. She couldn't see where the source of the noise was, but she knew what it was. She fired five bolts of energy from her blaster. She walked down the steps and saw a dead ant.

She came to a t-junction, where both to her right and in front of her was a small flight of stairs. She went to the right and went down a set of stairs and came to a rectangular room that had numerous crates along the north wall. Learning from both her Plumber training and the open world games that she watched Jack play, she decided to look through them.

In one she found an ashtray, a lead pipe, and a box of a cereal called sugar bombs. In first aid box she found some morphine, a box of bandages, some gauze, empty syringes, and these things called stimpaks. She took the stimpaks. In another she found some bottle caps, a clipboard and a knife. "Nothing useful." She mumbled. She looked in a toolbox and found a sensor module, a pair of scissors, and an unopened tube of superglue.

She went back to the t-junction and took a right. She came to a blue door that had chipped paint. She was on the push side of the door. Next to the door on the concrete floor was a makeshift lamp. June opened the door and came to a boiler room. Again she heard the clicking that the ants made when they walked. She looked to her left and saw an ant. She fired her blaster at it, disintegrating it's head. She then walked to the other side of the room where she found a catwalk that ran along the shorter wall that was farthest from the door. Walking across it, she came to some stairs. She walked down them and if there was enough light, she would've seen that the floor was covered in scraps of paper. She did however see a bit of light coming from an opened door. She jogged over to it and found that it lead to a corner that lead to some more concrete stairs. She walked down them and heard two more ants. She fired the four remaining bolts from this charge and walked down the hall. There was another corner, which lead to even more stairs. At the bottom of this flight of stairs, there was another corner which was part of a t-junction. She went straight and found a hallway to the East. She saw little blinking red lights, which she knew ment landmines. She took arm and fired at them, blowing them up. She then proceeded down the hallway. There were three little rooms in the hall. One had a metal barrel that was in the middle of three crate racks with some crates on them. In the crates the first crate, she found nothing, in the second, she found a clip board and a bundle of railway spikes. The third one had a single bottle cap and a clipboard. The fourth one had two pieces of scrap metal, a sensor module, and a tube of superglue. In the second room, there was a broken generator. And in the final room, there was a tool box on the top of a rack that had a paint gun and a piece of scrap metal in it.

She made her way back to the t-junction and found herself in a large room with two large turbines on either side. She walked to a handrail. Leaning on it, she noticed that there was a rather large section of the floor that was made out of a different material. "This has to be a secret passage." June said. She laid on the section of floor and had her ear against it. She heard clicking. She got up and looked around the wall. She eventually found a button. She pressed it and the secret passage opened. She walked down the metal steps, but not before blasting the ant that waited for her. She came to another corner, which she went down and came to an armored door. She opened the door and fired at the two ants that were on the other side. She walked down the hall, hearing dripping water. She saw the opening of a door that led to a sewer. She entered the sewer and noticed that on the opposite side of the water, there was a section of the wall missing. She jumped over the water and found that the hole lead to an abandoned mine. June saw that by the hole, there was a lantern. She picked it up and used it so that she could see in the dark mine.

She entered the mine and came to a curve in the rock. She turned and went deeper. She came to another turn and heard an ant approaching. She went around the turn and fired at the ant. She then passed the recently killed ant and came to a fork in the tunnel. She went to the left and went around it. She then looked over the corner that she just went through and realized that both paths went to the same place. She then proceeded down a stone incline, where she saw another ant, which she fired at. At the bottom of the incline were a few metal barrels, which she wondered how they got down here. She then went up a bit and came to a passage that at the end of it there was a wooden door. She jogged down it and entered the door.

'More tunnels.' She groaned in her head. She came to an oddly shaped rock that seemed to have an almost fork like shape. She maneuvered through it and came to yet another hill. She walked up it and came to a short passage then to a large(by this location's standards) cavan. In it she saw at least two dozen ants roaming around. In the center of the room however, she saw a throne with a woman sitting on. She wore a helmet, that had two lenses and two antennae. The outfit seemed to be ant themed, with spike shoulder pads, gauntlets, and boots. The colors of her armor were hard to make out due to the poor lighting. On her breastplate was the outline of an ant. June heard the woman speak.

"My ants" The woman shout. "We have all but broken the people of this pathetic little town. But soon we shall be able to move on to the next town. It is thanks to the gatherers for collecting this vehicle of recreation that we may transport both the queen of this colony as well as her subjects." Four ants which were as big as rhinos carried the Rust Bucket out of a tunnel.

'Wow, that old girl can take a beating.' June thought. She was glad the Rust Bucket was intact, but she had to stop this woman from using it to become mobile. She was about to take aim and fire at this woman, but she felt a sharp pain in her sides. She looked behind her and saw that he had been bitten by one of the ants. She heard footsteps approaching her. She looked up and saw the woman that had been speaking to the ants approach her.

She said to June; "You shall bear witness to my final victory over this puny town, before I squash you." June felt weak and then she fell unconscious.

Topside...

Jack and Ernst continued to speak.

"So where did the Antagonizer come from?" Asked Jack.

"She came into town one day with her ants in tow. She didn't say where she came from."

"Any idea?"

"None, but one for her inspiration. There was a comic book character, a villain named the Antagonizer. She was an enemy of Grognak the Barbarian, but was only featured in one issue due to marvel sueing them." Ernest answered.

"Let me guess, she was too similar to Ant Man." Suggested Jack.

"That's the one." Was Ernest's reply. "When Marvel sued them they-" Ernest was interrupted by a man who wore a torn plaid shirt and blue jeans.

"She's here!" The man shouted.

"Who's here? You're playing the pronoun game." Asked Jack. "Yes, the three of us know it's the Antagonizer, but for future reference, don't play the pronoun game." Jack rambled. "But as for the Antagonizer herself, I'll deal with her."

"How?" Asked Ernest.

"Just watch."

Jack ran out of the half demolished cafe and say the Antagonizer. Jack checked the Omnitrix and saw that it was green. He was good to go.

"People of Canterbury Commons." The antagonizer announced. "I have decided to leave this pathetic hole." Before the people could cheer, she finished. "But before that, I am going to crush you like the lower life forms that you are."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Jack shouted.

"Who said that?" The antagonizer looked around for the source of the voice and found nothing.

"I did." Jack stepped out into the old road. He stood facing the Antagonizer. The hero and the villainess stood on opposite sides of the road. Behind the Antagonizer stood about a hundred ants.

Jack was the first to speak up. "You must be the the Antagonizer." Jack chuckled. "Funny. I thought you'd be more, you know, insect-y." Jack said when he saw that the Antagonizer wore armor, and wasn't a mutant or an alien.

"You dare to insult me! Me, the Antagonizer?" The villainess shouted. "I shall destroy you with my army of mutant ants!" Her ants charged at Jack, but she commanded them to stop. "Hold up. You look familiar. You resemble the woman who tried to assassinate me in my throne room. Needless to say, she was over ambitious. One of my ants managed to incapacitate her and she is now my prisoner."

"You have my mom?!" Jack was enraged.

"Hmm, the resemblance is uncanny." She said. "Ants, tear him apart!"

"Well, you try that. But first, it's hero time!" Jack activated the Omnitrix and turned into Diamondhead. "Now it's time for Jack 10 to play the part of the exterminator."

"Attack him my ants!" The antagonizer shouted. The ants charged at Diamondhead, who ran at the ants as well, he formed his arms into blades.

Diamondhead sliced open the heads of one of the ants. He then fired crystal shards at a couple more of the ants, ripping them to pieces.

The ants surrounded him. They started to pilled on top of him. The ants tried to bite Diamondhead, but their mandibles couldn't get through his Diamond hard skin, however, they were starting to get him to collapse.

Diamondhead was buried among a pile of giant ants. "Can't get up." Diamondhead caused spikes to sprout from all over his body, killing all of the ants that restrained him. Diamondhead got up and looked at the Antagonizer. "Give up Antwoman. Your ants are defeated."

"You may have ended these ants, but keep in mind, where there is one ant, there are a thousand ready to take its place!" The Antagonizer shouted. "You haven't seen the last of me Jack 10!" She melodramatically shouted as she ran off.

The Omnitrix dial on Diamondhead's chest blinked before he was replaced with Jack.

The town people who were hiding came out to see Jack among the dead ants.

Ernest came up to Jack. Jack thought that he was going to say how he wasn't welcome in their town.

"Jack, we-"

"I know, you want me to leave town because you don't want another superpowered disaster zone like me."

"No. Jack, we're glad that you stood up to the Antagonizer. I don't know if anyone's said this before, but you're a hero. We just want to say thank you."

"You're welcome." Jack replied. "But the Antagonizer got away. And she managed to get my mom."

"Yeah, we might not be able to help you with that, but if there's anything that you need, just ask."

"There is one thing. Could you keep a secret?"

"What kind of secret?"

"About my powers. Don't tell anyone outside of this town about my identity."

"Sure."

A boy, Derek ran up to Jack. He said: "So Jack 10, if you're all those alien heroes, can I have your autograph?" He asked.

"Sure, but not as Jack 10, just as one of my alien forms, and only one."

Derek handed Jack a picture of Big Chill. "This one."

"Oh Big Chill, my favorite." Jack said. "Wish I still had him unlocked though."

Jack signed the picture 'Stay frosty. -B.C.

"Thanks! Sorry about your mom though. I hope you find a way to get her back."

"Don't worry about my mom. She can handle anything thrown at her."

"And what gave you that idea Jack?" Asked Ernest. "Yeah, if she's traveling in the desert with just a camper, her son and his friends, she's by no means a delicate wallflower. But I doubt she'll survive the Antagonizer."

Raf ran up beside Jack. "Oh don't worry about Mrs Darby, she's survived worse."

"Yeah, but we have to think of a way of stopping the Antagonizer." Jack got the discussion back on track.

Derek ran over to one of the ants that Jack killed as Diamondhead and picked up one of the crystal shards. He showed the shard to Jack. "We could make bullets out of the crystals Diamondhead is made of and kill her ants."

"Good idea on paper, but I don't know if that's doable."

"Got any better ideas?" Ernest asked. "I got a reloading bench back behind my place. We could make a dozen or so anti-antagonizer bullets."

"Yeah, that seems like a good idea, but we need to focus on something that she can't easily breed out of her ants. Something that bypasses armor." Raf paced back and forth.

Arcee, still in her Sadie guise walked up. "Jack, I saw what happened. Why didn't you shout? I would've helped out."

Hearing Arcee's voice gave Raf an idea. "I got it!"

"Got what?" Asked Ernest.

"To beat the ants, we have to get energy past their armor, not through it." Ernest, Jack, Sadie, and Derek looked at Raf like he was crazy.

"Okay you lost me." Ernest admitted. "Get past but not through? Jack, does this kid ever make a lick of sense?"

"He does, you just have to let him explain."

"In order to beat the ants, we need to be able to destroy them from the inside out. And not by dissolving them, but by heating them up."

"Okay. But how? When we tried setting the ants ablaze, it caused them to explode violently."

"We need to use a laser weapon. Like a Spartan laser from Halo, or blaster rifles from Star Wars. But there's one problem, two actually."

"And those are?"

"I don't know how to make one, and even if I did, I don't have any parts to make one."

"Maybe Brainfrog can." Suggested Derek.

"Brainfrog? It's Grey Matter. But yeah, he possible could make one, even with sub par human technology."

"Hmm. If that'll get rid of the Antagonizer and her ants, you have my support. And as for parts, head over to Moira over at Craterside Supply, she might be able to help.

Jack and Raf ran into Craterside Supply. They found Moira and The Lone Wanderer chatting.

"Why're you two running into the store?" Moria asked.

When Jack managed to catch his breath, Jack spoke to Moria. "The Antagonizer's got my mom prisoner, and we have an idea to take care of the Ants." Jack summarized. "But first, Moria, can you keep a secret?"

"I sure can, wait, why?" She asked. Jack pressed the green button on the Omnitrix and cycled through aliens. "Wait, your secret is that you play with your watch?"

"No, this is." Jack selected Grey Matter and transformed.

"Wow! You're one of those aliens from the news."

Grey Matter rolled his eyes. "Not one of them, all of them, well, all of the good ones at least."

"Well, your secret's safe with me Jack. Wait, this one's a bit small to fight giant ants."

"Duh, I'm not gonna fight them, Wash is."

"Yeah. Wait, what?" Wash thought Jack was crazy. "My guns don't work on them."

"Yes, your guns don't work, but that's because the bullets don't piece the exoskeleton." Grey Matter said as he grabbed some coins out of the cash register. "So in order to fight the ants, we need to heat the flesh from underneath the armor." He took a calculator and opened it up with a small screwdriver, getting the electrical components out. Grey Matter looked around the store and saw what he had to work with. "So in order to do that, I'll need to make you an energy weapon."

"But how?" Raf asked. "Human can't make stuff like that."

"But I'm not a human, I'm a Galvan. And to make a laser weapon, here's what I'll need, and don't ask why I'll need this stuff, it'll take too long." Grey matter explained. "Raf, get me a, four flashlights, some glue, a box of matches, and a Nerf gun, there must be one around here. Moria, get me a camera, two conductors, a RC car, and a glass soda bottle, don't wash it out, having soda residue in it will make it work better, and Wash, I need one of those toy Coca Cola trucks, some surgical tubing, and a couple of lantern batteries." Grey Matter said. "Now go get me that stuff."

Wash, Raf, and Moria got him what he needed. Grey Matter got to work. He opened up the nerf gun and removed its firing mechanism. He used the matches to melt the plastic from the firing mechanism to melt the plastic so that he could attach the soda bottle to the nerf gun. Grey Matter smashed the lightbulbs and used the glass shards and filaments to make a better bulb. He used used the camera to make a trigger for the laser gun, and the lense was used as a the end of the gun's barrel. After a lot of building, he finished with the gun. He then opened up the lantern batteries and removed the individual cells from them. He open those up and dumped the chemical mixture of the cells out into a glass container.

"Wash, you know those blue crystals that you found?"

"Yeah?"

"Give them to me." Wash gave Grey Matter four blue crystals, which he shredded with a knife. He placed them in the cell and then sealed up the batteries. "They're not useless trinkets."

"So what are they?" He asked.

"Energon. Which is, and I quote: 'The fuel and life blood of cybertronians, good and evil.'" Raf responded.

"Who said that?" Moira asked.

The Omnitrix dial blinked. Grey Matter was turned back into Jack. "Optimus. Optimus Prime."

"Optimus who?" Wash scratched his head.

"We might introduce you two to him." Jack said. "But first we have to stop the Antagonizer."

"Right! Let's go!" Wash picked up the laser rifle. He was about to exit the store, but realized that he didn't know where he needed to go. "Uh, where'd the Antagonizer take June?" He asked.

"To her lair, but we don't know where it is."

Raf spoke up. "I think I can help."

"How?" Asked Moria.

"Buy tracking her phone with Wash's Pip Boy. Could I see it?"

"Sure, just don't break it." Wash removed his wrist mounted computer.

Raf connected it to his phone with its charging cable. He opened the map function and found that the Pip Boy could send a signal to June's phone that the Pip Boy would pick up. "She's just outside of town."

"Alright. Jack, let's go."

Jack nodded and followed Wash out of craterside supply. They ran to the entrance of the Antagonizer's lair, which was being guarded by several ants. Wash took aim and fired at the ants, each shot he fired killed one of the ants. They then entered the lair. Jack and Wash encountered about a dozen ants. Jack activated the Omnitrix and turned into Wildvine, although he selected Heatblast.

Wildvine removed several of the pods that were on his back and threw them down the hall. They exploded and killed the ants. They ran down the stair and came across another group of ants. But these were different. These were slightly redder than the rest of them.

"Hold up." Wash grabbed one of Wildvine's vines. "These ones are new. Let's see what they do." Wash went down the stairs and was attacked by the ants, and these spouted fire from their mouths. Wash hid behind a pillar as he waited for the fire ants to run out of flames. When the flames stopped, was prepared to take aim, but he saw that Wildvine had killed them. In a flash of red light, Jack was in the place of Wildvine.

"Thanks for the assist Jack."

"Didn't want you to have all the fun."

They continued down the halls and eventually, after fighting dozens of ants, they came to the Antagonizer's lair.

"Okay Jack." Wash said. "You wait back here and stand by to provide back up. I'll try to talk this out."

"Okay." Jack thought Wash was crazy when he suggested trying to find a peaceful solution, but then realized that diplomacy was a good way to solve the problem.

Wash approached the throne of the Antagonizer. The Villanesse noticed the approaching traveller.

"So at last you've penetrated the court of the Antagonizer, queen of all ants!" She proclaimed. Wash holstered his laser blaster. "State your business so I might give my pretties the order not to kill you."

"I've come to ask you to stop attacking this town and the people who make their homes here."

"Didn't you hear my announcement? I'm leaving this town and am going to begin my task of conquering the country!"

"But why? What's to gain by taking over the US?" Asked Wash.

"Once the United States government is under my control, I will use its military resources to begin a war that will grind down the population of the pathetic species known as humanity down to only a few hundred thousand." Explained the Antagonizer.

Wash let what the Antagonizer said sit in his mind for a few moments before responding. "But if it's a nuclear war you're gonna start, you'd most likely die in the atomic fire. I mean it's not like you have some sort of vault that you can wait out the apocalypse in." The Antagonizer snapped her fingers, an ant removed a tarp that was covering up a gigantic gear shaped piece of metal. in the center of the gear was the number 13. Wash went slack jawed. "What's that?"

"A Vault. Constructed during a conflict known as the Cold War, this Vault is one of a hundred that were built by a group that had access to technology that was beyond what was believed to be possible at the time."

"But how'd you find it? And how do you know it's still usable?"

"When I settled in this town, my ants and I found the Vault, it had been sealed, and upon opening it, I found that it had been left in the same condition as it had been decades ago. A perfectly sealed container. And as for it's condition, the Vault was meant to survive a nuclear war. So it goes to reason that it could survive sixty years without human intervention."

"But the people who survive, since they'll know who destroyed the world, they'll probably band together to destroy you."

"True, but they won't know of my hiding place."

"You really underestimate the will power of humans that share a common enemy. Examples of it date back hundreds of years."

"I don't believe you. Prove it."

"Take Great Britain and the Soviet Union during world war 2, both of them were at each other's throats, but when they were faced with a common enemy, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. They were willing to put aside their differences to fight the greater threat."

"And you think it's only going to be humans to are going to be looking for you?" Said Jack as came into view. "There's a lot more on this planet then just human governments. From space cops to high tech knights, you're gonna have your hands full when it comes to new enemies."

Wash was annoyed that Jack didn't listen to him, but the information the Jack revealed was interesting.

"You two make a valid argument." The Antagonizer stood up from her throne. "I will surrender and you may take me prisoner. If and only if you can defeat me in a one on one fight. However, if it is I that is the victor, I will execute both you and the prisoner."

"I accept your terms." Jack said. He stepped forward. "Let's do this."

The Antagonizer laughed. "Not against you Jack 10, I will not fight a child." She pointed at Wash. "However, I am not above fighting you friend. Unarmed."

"Fine." Wash approached the Antagonizer. The Antagonizer ran up to Wash. She leaped and performed a flying side kick and knocked Wash down. He got up and slid his leg under the Antagonizer's and caused her to fall. The Antagonizer got up and punched Wash in the face, giving Wash a black eye. Wash was in great pain. As he held her eye, the Antagonizer punched him over and over until Wash recovered and kicked the Antagonizer in the gut, sending her back was got the Antagonizer in a chokehold. He was about to hold the Antagonizer down, but was thrown over the Antagonizer's head. The Antagonizer had Wash at her mercy. She drew a gun out and pointed it at his head. She was about to pull the trigger, but Wash managed to slam his Pip Boy on her foot, distracting her. Wash managed to hold her down.

"Jack, get the handcuffs!" Wash shouted as the Antagonizer tried to get away.

Jack was confused. "What?"

"In my backpack!"

Jack looked in Wash's black backpack and found a set of handcuffs. He placed them around the Antagonizer's wrists.

"Well. That was fun." Wash breathed a sigh of relief.

Epilogue...

The Antagonizer was silent as she was placed in the back of a state trooper's car. June had been rescued from the Ants. Jack got the Rust Bucket out of the cave by possessing it as Upgrade and making a drill that allowed it to drill out of the cave.

"Thanks to you two we don't have to worry about the Antagonizer." Ernest thanked Jack and Wash. "If there's anything I can do to help you out, all you have to do is ask."

"I'm good, but Wash might need your help."

Wash nodded. "Yeah, I might need some supplies."

Later...

The Rust Bucket drove off. Wash watched it drive off into the sunset. On the back of his jumpsuit, he had painted something on it. The number ten was painted on it with yellow paint.

Wash felt his pip boy vibrate. It picked up a radio signal that was gonna be his next stop on his journey. (Fallout 3 players will get this)

Years later...

A man in black power armor sat on a stool while a group of children listen to what he was saying. Floating to the left of the armored man was a robot to that looked like the sputnik space probe. One of the children was a black haired boy who had green eyes. Another was a cybertronian girl who looked like Arcee but had magenta armor and bright pink optics.

"So that was how Jack Tennyson met the first of many allies that would later come to help him in the battle of the highbreed." The Storyteller said. "But that would be at least a few years after meeting the lone wanderer. In the meantime, he would continue his trip across the United States with his mother and friends. It would be close to a week before he met his next challenge, one that gave a hint that there was something larger at play." He said. "But that, is a story for another day."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. If you're wondering why the Lone Wanderer's appearance is not described and why I use pronouns for both genders, it's so that it can be like how in Fallout you can create your own character, so basicly you can imagine the lone wanderer looking however you want him/her to look like. But the way the personality is portrayed is similar to how I play Fallout, basically, he's a wanderer who helps out wherever he goes. And for how I see the appearance is how I see Agent Washington.
> 
> And I had the Antagonizer be a legitimate threat. The ants she uses couldn't be stopped by bullets after a while, so she basically rules the town.
> 
> When I posted this on Fanfiction.net, I intended on posting it on the tenth of november, which was the released date for Fallout 4, for everywhere but Japan.


	24. Farm Work

"Because one dog ain't enough, and two is too low, it's me Three Dog! News time, children. Folks from the little town of Canterbury Commons are saying that their not so little bug problem has been solved thanks to the efforts of a wanderer wearing a blue jumpsuit and a bunch of those aliens that've been popping up all over this country of ours. The reason the aliens were in that town is unknown, but the residents are glad that they no longer have to worry about the super psycho known as the Antagonizer. In other news, reports are coming in from the town of Dairyville of what can only be described as purple lightning. If this is in any way connected to the similar event that happened over at the Navajo reservation is unknown. All I can saw is that if you live around Dairyville, take a look outside while you can, this may be a once in a lifetime thing. And now, some music."

Nighttime, near a place called Dairyville...

Three boys propped up the barbed wire that made up the fence to a cow pasture. One had red hair and for some reason resembled Beavis, another was more than a little fat, and one that was shirtless but had overalls on. He had a bit of mud on his black hair. He had in his arms a piglet that was the size of a rabbit.

"Maybe we shouldn't be here." The boy whimpered.

"I knew we shouldn't have brought him." The Beavis lookalike sneered. He's nothing but a big baby."

"Come on, Todd. Don't wimp out now." The fat boy said. "It's just a little fun. You push over the cow, and it can't get back up."

When the ginger heard this, he laughed. "We'll even let you tip the first one, unless the baby wants to go home so mommy can change his diaper." He said in a rather demeaning tone. To drive the point in, he sucked his thumb mockingly.

Todd walked up to one of the grazing cows. The piglet, which he had put on the ground followed him. Todd placed his hands on the side of the cow and try as could, he wasn't strong enough to push the cow over. The piglet helped out too, but that did little to change the outcome. Which was Todd slipping and falling face first into the mud.

Both of the ones who talked him into this were laughing at him when they got the attention of the bull, which was the cow that Todd had tried to tip.

"Priceless!" The fat kid mocked.

"Doof!"

The bull bellowed, which somehow, despite being right next to it Todd didn't hear. The bull was gearing up to charge. The two bullies and Todd's pig ran away.

"Hey, where's everybody going?" The bull snorted, which Todd felt on the back of his neck. The bull was grinding its hoof into the ground. "Back off, cow chip!" Todd shouted. The bull looked up and turned around and ran, which Todd thought was because of him, which was not true at all. You see, right as the three boys and the pig entered the pasture, there was a bolt of purple lightning. Ah damnit. "Yeah. That's right. You do not want to mess with todd maplewood." Todd didn't notice the figure approaching him from behind him. It move in an unearthly manner, swaying back and forth. Its shape was hidden by a cloud that was passing over the moon, but you could infact see a purple glow that was coming from the creature's chest. Todd heard breathing coming from behind him. He looked around his back to see what had scared the bull off. It had it's arms wrapped around its chest, which it unfolded to try and grab him Its arms were longer than its legs and were complemented by arms that had long, thin, almost bandage like fingers. Todd ran off before it could nab him. "Mommy!" He screamed after it roared.

The next morning, in the Rust Bucket...

Raf was sketching something in a notebook. Jack was reading one of his graphic novels while Arcee was using Raf's computer.

"You gotta love summer vacation." Raf was finishing up his drawing of what looked like a humanoid robot. He didn't see that someone was walking up from behind him. "Nothing to do all day long but sit around and - oh!" His shoulder was grabbed by June, who was wearing a bathrobe. Her hair was still wet, but not because she got out of the shower, her hair still had suds from the shampoo she used in it. "Hey. Mrs Darby, what gives?

June used a towel to dry off her hair. She was pissed. "What gives is that I ran out of water in the shower. Again. It's your job to keep the tank full, Raf."

Raf tried to avoid the glare that June was shooting at him. "I will, just later."

"Sure. The same way you're 'going' to make your bed?" Jack spoke.

June turned her frustration towards Jack. "You're a fine one to talk, young man. You think those dirty dishes are just gonna wash themselves? And if I remember correctly, it was your job to take out the trash."

"But it's summer vacation, mom."

Raf agreed with Jack on that. "Yeah. If we wanted to do chores, we could have just stayed at home and help Ratchet clean the base."

Arcee snickered. She absentmindedly hit the radio and changed the channel. There was static before the voice of a woman was heard.

She said with your typical farm folk accent. "Y'all ready for a little fresh air? Want a chance to commune with the animals? You know someone who needs to learn the value of some good, old-fashioned hard work?" Arcee went from smiling to feeling a sense of dread, which was confirmed when she saw the look of interest that was on June's face when she heard the radio broadcast. "Then sign your whole clan up for a week at dairyville's family fun farm camp and experience life on a real working farm."

"I do not like that look in her eye." Raf might not know what's going on in June's head(no one does, she's the response to Church's sarcastic comment in Out of Body), but he knows when someone's gonna do something that won't enjoy to him.

"The feeling is mutual."

Later...

The Rust Bucket drove down a road that had fields of wheat along the side of it.

"Trust me. You're gonna love it." June tried to get the three that she was traveling with to enjoy themselves. She noticed that Arcee was on the verge of panicking. "When I was a kid, I spent every summer on my great uncle jedediah's farm. Learning the value of a little hard work is just what you three need." She noticed that Arcee was trying to avoid eye contact with June. "You too Arcee, you may be a soldier, but all I've seen you do is fight. You gotta learn how to do something after your war is won, so you might as well start by working on a farm."

Arcee managed a forced smile. "Can't wait to start." She lied.

June parked the Rust Bucket. The four of them got out. Arcee was the last one to exit the camper, as she had to put her ID mask on. There was a woman with brown hair that wore black rubber boots that most likely had steel toes. She was wearing a set of blue overalls and a dark pink short sleeve shirt. She was standing next to Todd, who we met in this chapter's prologue.

"Welcome." The woman greeted the group. "I'm Joan Maplewood. This is my son, todd. You must be the Darbys."

"Yes, uh, call me June, and this is my son Jack." She noticed that Sadie and Raf were trying to avoid looking at Joan. "And these tenderfoots are my son's friends, Raf and Sadie."

Todd had a mile wide smile. "Hi!"

Raf and Sadie both unenthusiasticly said: "Hey."

"Well, enough chit chat." Joan got the attention of the new arrivals. "You're here to work." She pointed over to a truck that was parked in front of the barn door. "You can start by unloading that truckful of feed over there."

"Righty-o." Jack jogged over to the truck and started the task. He grabbed one and dropped it into Raf's outstretched hands.

"Ugh!" Raf groaned as he struggled to hold the bag up. "Oh, man. There's gotta be like a thousand of these things."

"Yeah, this looks like a job for-" Jack was about to transform, but was stopped by June.

"Jack 'I'm too lazy to take out the trash' Darby, and only him - if you know what I mean." June shot him a death stare.

"Big deal. I can carry ten of these at once." Sadie said.

June pressed a button on her keychain. It caused Sadie's arms to give out, making her drop the bags she was carrying.

"What the heck just happened?" Sadie struggled to lift the bags.

"Making it so that everyone here has to do their fair share of the chores.

Sadie pouted. "Why do I get the feeling that the fun part of this trip is suddenly over?"

Several hours later...

The four of them had finished unloading the grain bags and had them in a pile in the barn as Joan instructed.

An exhausted Jack grabbed his jacket before he collapsed onto the stack of grain bags. "Well, that's the last of it." He stretched out. "Nothing like working up a good sweat, right, guys?" Jack

Raf was panting, he would definitely be sore in the morning.

The ringing of a bell was heard. "Come and get it!" Joan shouted from her porch. "Suppertime!"

They ran into the house and sat around the table with Joan and Todd. "Mmm. Good grub, Joan."

"Yeah, with no actual grubs in it for a change." Raf got a chuckle out of June.

"So, no tv, no video games, no malls." Jack listed in a manner that sounded like he was mad. "Miko would hate it here. But that begs the question, what do you guys do for excitement around here when there's not work to be done?"

"Well, you won't believe what I saw last night." Todd said.

"Now, none of that." Joan thought that what Todd was saying sounds like what jet is made out of. "No one's interested in your tall tales." She wiped off her face with a napkin before standing up. "Let's get these dishes washed and then hit the hay. Jacky boy, mind helping me out?"

"Sure thing." Jack got out of his chair and collected everyone's dishes.

"Wait, we're going to bed? But it's still light out."

"Trust me." Sadie said. "You'll be glad you got the sleep come morning."

Later...

Jack, June, Sadie, and Raf were being led to a guest house by Todd.

"Okay, so spill it."

"Spill what?" Todd asked, which will be a prelude to what Jack's gonna have to deal with in a few years.

"What did you see last night?"

"Oh that, it's nothing." Todd said. "You wouldn't believe me, anyway."

Sadie caught up to Jack and Todd. "Try us. We've seen some pretty bizarre stuff this summer."

"Well, I was down in old man johnson's pasture when, right in front of me, bigger than life... A genuine egyptian walking-dead mummy."

Jack and Sadie were sceptic, heck, even Miko would be. "Really?"

The entered the guest house and were led up the stairs to a room with four bunk beds, two windows, one on each side, and a couple of nightstands between the sets of bunk beds.

"Here it is - home, sweet home for the next week." Todd said.

Raf noticed the smell instantly. "Ew. What's that smell?"

"Oh. This is the chicken coop, too." Todd walked down the stairs. "See you in the morning."

June took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Isn't that great?" She asked. "Nothing like the smell of country air."

Raf groaned. "Could this get any worse?" Raf laid down in one of the beds and when he placed his head on the pillow, he heard the clucking of a chicken. "Hey!" Raf shooed the chicken away and saw that it left an egg.

June chuckled. "Guess we won't have to worry about fresh eggs in the morning."

Later in the night, Jack had snuck out. He managed to get by both his mom and Raf without waking either of them up. He ran past a bend in one of the buildings and saw Sadie.

"Going somewhere?" She asked.

"Same place you are." Was Jack's reply.

"Mummy hunt." They both said in unison.

They ran into a corn field. After getting to the other side, there was a barbed wire fence in the way. Jack crawled underneath it while Sadie jumped over it. They came to a hole that someone or something must've dug. There were glowing purple footprints leading away from it.

"Think that's where his tomb was?" Jack asked.

"An egyptian tomb in south carolina? That's -" Arcee thought this over for a bit. "Come to think of it, if that was the case, it wouldn't be that hard to believe."

Sadie heard growling. She looked over her shoulder to see two things that looked like the result of the FEV virus mixed with Dark Energon. She got Jack's attention.

Jack was just as worried as Arcee. "I know I'm a city kid, but cows aren't supposed to look that, right?"

The mutated cows charged at Jack and Sadie.

Arcee was able to think of a plan to deal with the Fallout 4 rejects. "Split up!" She shouted. She and Jack both ran in opposite directions, however, even though their intent was to confuse the mutants, both of them turned and pursued Arcee. She tried deactivating her ID mask, which interfered with her weapons, but found that June had jammed it, trapping her in her human guise.

Arcee didn't want it to end like this. She was going to be trample and mauled by mutated cows. That would've been her fate if not for a blue and black streak that sped across the field behind the cows and a fleeing Arcee. It then turned and hit Arcee, causing her to disappear. But she wasn't dead. No. You'd only think she's dead if you start in this chapter. She's a main character. No, what happened is that she was grabbed by XLR8, who got her out of the path of the corrupted cows. XLR8 stood by a barbed wire fence with Arcee in his arms bridal style. He placed Arcee back down.

"Thanks." Arcee was thankful that Jack was there to save her. She gasped in terror as she and XLR8 saw the two mutants charging at them.

Arcee got in a combat stance, before realizing that she was about as useful as pre omnitrix Jack in a fight. So she had to sit this one out.

XLR8 on the other hand sped over to the opposite end of the cows, getting their attention away from Arcee. "Toro, toro!" XLR8 taunted. He waited until the purple mutants were a few feet from him before he sped off to where the cows were a few seconds ago. "Olé!" He continued to act a matador.

The cows roared as they approached him. Once again, when they got within inches of him, XLR8 sped off, this time behind the one with the bull horns and pulled its tail.

Arcee, from her vantage point in the tree could see that the other mutated cow was charging at XLR8 from behind. "Jack, look out behind you!"

The cow rammed into the Kineceleran, sending XLR8 flying into the tree Arcee was in. "Ugh!" XLR8 groaned.

"Never mind." Arcee said.

XLR8 raised the visor on his helmet. He saw the two mutated cows approaching him. He got up and ran along the barbed wire fence and got a few yards of it in his arms. He stopped and let the mutants think he gave up, but when the cows got closer, XLR8 ran around them in a circle, picking up dust and dirt, forming a cloud. When the dust settled, the two mutated cows were tied up.

Arcee climbed out of the tree that she was in to stay out of the reach of the mutants. "First a mummy, now mutant cows? What kind of farm are they running here" Arcee questioned. "What's next? A mutated Jackson's Chameleon?"(Look it up)

"I don't know, but there's one way to find out." XLR8 noticed glowing patches of grass. "Follow the glowing trail."

XLR8 lowered his visor and was about to bolt down the path that either the cows or something else left. "Jackson Darby, don't you leave me..." XLR8 left Arcee. "Alone!"

XLR8 ran through a forest and came to an abandoned farm where in a hole in front of the doors to the barn was a mummy that was digging up something. The hole was emitting purple light. XLR8 got closer to the mummy to see it up close he found that the mummy did in fact look egyptian, but there was an air of extraterrestrial to the nature of the B-movie reject that was before XLR8.

"Woah. Looks like todd was right." XLR8 said, not realizing how loud his voice was. "But why would a mummy try to get back into the ground?"

The mummy heard XLR8 and turned to face him, showing the Kineceleran its glowing purple eyes. It growled at XLR8. It leaped out of the hole it dug and slammed down four tendrils of what seemed to be its cloth wrapping.

XLR8 dodge this attack by putting a good twenty feet between himself and the mummy. The mummy then used one of its arms as a whip and slammed it in XLR8's direction, but missed, instead a barn that was a bit to the left of XLR8.

XLR8 ran into the barn and flung a bunch of sharp objects at the Mummy, which would've damaged it if the mummy hadn't spread itself apart and let the tools fly through an empty space.

The mummy looked behind itself to see that if the tools had made contact, he would've been damage. XLR8 used this as an opportunity to attack. He charged at the mummy, jumped up and kicked it. The mummy recovered from the blow and then grabbed XLR8, preventing his escape. The mummy then flung XLR8 into the side of a grain silo. After XLR8 got back up, three strands of the mummy's cloth made contact with the metal, which would've hit XLR8 if he hadn't ran away. XLR8 up the silo and stood on top of the roof. He looked around for the mummy, but found no sign of it. He heard a shrieking and looked behind him to see the mummy approach him. It punched XLR8 off the silo and on to the ground. The mummy jumped off the silo and landed ten feet in front of XLR8.

The Omnitrix dial on XLR8's chest blinked red and beeped rapidly, before reverting Jack to his human state.

Jack gulped. "Oh man. I hate it when that happens." The mummy grabbed two of the pillars holding the cover of the grain silo up. It pulled them out causing the silo to collapse. Jack, despite not being a graduate of the prometheus school of running away from things, couldn't move his legs. He was paralyzed with fear. That would've been the end if not for Arcee jumping at Jack, which got him out of the way.

"So, are we even in the rescue department?" Arcee asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He had just seen his life flash before his eyes. Jack then realized that something was gone. "Wait, where's the mummy?"

"Don't know." Arcee replied. "But whatever it was, it was digging for something glowing at the bottom of the crater, but that's gone now.

Later, back at Dairyville...

Jack and Sadie got back to the guest house/chicken coop. Jack laid down on the bed. "Oh, man am I beat. I could sleep for a week." Jack yawned and tried to get some sleep, but the universe isn't feeling merciful at this time.

Joan came into the room turned on the lights and shouted: "Rise and shine, sleepyheads!"

"You've got to be kidding." Arcee and Jack were both too tired. "It's 5:00 a.m." Even though Arcee was a robot, she was still a living being. 'Come on. Optimus at least waits until six thirty.' She said to herself.

"And those cows aren't gonna milk themselves." Joan said.

June got out of her bed and stretched her arms. "Uhh! Now, aren't you glad you went to bed early?"

Jack and Arcee looked at each other then frowned.

In the barn...

Todd was showing the Jack, June, Raf, and Arcee how to milk the cows.

"Just squeeze and pull. Squeeze and pull." Todd said.

"Hey, don't they have machines for this?" Arcee asked.

"Ma doesn't believe in them." Todd answered. "Says they spook the cows."

Arcee shrugged her shoulders. "Fair enough. But, isn't there something else we could do?"

"Well, the manure needs to be shoveled. And you could sweep out the hay loft, but ma wanted Raf to do that, seeing as he's not that strong."

Seeing as there were only two options available both Jack and Arcee picked the less repulsive chore. "Milking." They both said.

Todd, June, and Raf left the barn. When the door was closed by Todd, Jack had a realization about the task at hand.

"Aw man." Jack groaned. "This is gonna take forever." Jack pressed the green button on the Omnitrix. "Unless we get a little special help."

Arcee didn't want to milk the cows, as well, but she didn't want to disobey June either. "Jack, your mom told you specifically not to go alien to do this stuff."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jack, as almost as if he could read Arcee's mind, knew that Arcee wanted to get this done quickly. "You wouldn't want to miss out on the experience of milking all these cows?"

"So, what aruyo waiting for?" The thought 'What June doesn't know about won't get her mad.' ran through Arcee's head. She decided to encourage Jack to bend the rules. "Change already."

Later...

Arcee was lying on a haystack. She had a stalk of wheat in her mouth. "Oh, yeah. This is working out great."

A cow was trying to get away from Four Arms, who was carrying another. The tetramand was holding onto the freeing cow's tail. "Stand still. I don't like this any more than you do." One of the Cows knocked over one of the buckets, which frustrated Four Arms. "Hey, that one was almost filled!" Four Arms got that cow over his other shoulder, which caused him to fall into another haystack. The fall was caused not by too much wieght, but rather it was caused by the balance being affected.

"How's it going in there?" Joan asked before she came into the barn. Four Arms hid in a haystack while Arcee pretended to milk one of the cows.

"Oh, just milking away." Arcee lied.

"Where's that boyfriend of yours?" Joan asked.

"Jack? Oh, he's not my boyfriend, but he..." Arcee thought of an excuse. "went to go get more buckets."

"Hmm." Joan believed Arcee. "Well, when you're done here, go find Todd. He'll show you your other chores for the day."

After Joan closed the door, Four Arms poked his head out of the hay stack. "That was close."

Later...

Todd was feeding the pigs grain. He poured the mixture into a trough, then handed the bucket to Jack. Arcee and Jack looked to see that there was a veritable metric shit tonne of pigs to feed.

Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Stinkfly, but instead got Wildvine, which he didn't complain about. Wildvine grabbed a couple of the feed bags and poured them over the pig pens.

And again, later in the day...

Todd dropped an egg in Jack's hands as he walked out of a chicken coop, one that wasn't also the guest house. Jack tossed the egg to Arcee then walked into the coop. There was a flash of green light, and seconds later, XLR8 was running out of the coop with a ton of eggs in his arms. He raised the visor on his helmet, showing the mile wide grin that was on his face. However that turned into a humorous shock when he saw that he had accidently picked up one of the chickens.

Later still...

Todd got a horse ready to plow the field, which would be easy, if horses were'nt free thinking beings that could stay still if they wanted to.

To solve this problem, Jack turned into Jackwolf and used his claws to cut the ropes that kept the horse on the plow. He then pushed the plow across the field.

After that...

Todd used a post hole digger to make a hole that he put a white fence post into. Arcee held the post hole digger, which after Todd left, she tossed to the ground. Jack turned into Diamondhead and used his bladed arm to jab at the ground, making a hole which Arcee put in a fence post. Jack and Arcee both had smug expressions on their faces.

Later, at sundown...

Jack, Arcee, and Todd were walking down the dirt road to the guest house. "So, do you have to work like this every day?" Jack asked.

"Nah. During planting and harvest seasons, we don't have it so easy. But, to tell you the truth, at least it keeps you busy. It's usually pretty boring around here." Todd admitted. "It's not like every day a mummy appears in a flash of purple lighting."

Arcee and Jack's eyes went wide with shock after hearing this. "Purple lightning?"

At the manure pile...

"Purple lightning?" June asked as she shoveled some cow crap into the back of a pickup truck.

"Just like when we crossed paths with that alien werewolf." Said Jack.

"There's no way that it's just a coincidence."

"I'm not sure, but it can't be good." June said as she finished up shoveling the manure for the day. "Come on. You guys can fill me in on the rest while I grab some gear and get Raf."

Later, at the sight of the battle between XLR8 and the mutated cows...

June held a machine that functioned like an energon detector in front of the cows. "Well, this would explain your mutant cows, but we've got an even bigger problem."

"Bigger than a rampaging mummy and monster cows?" Raf asked, not liking that things are about to get worse.

"I'm picking up trace readings of corodium."

"Corodium? Did you just mispronounce Dark Energon?"

"No, Dark Energon's a bit different. Like Dark Energon, Corodium is a high-energy mineral, but unlike Dark Energon, this stuff's not naturally found on earth and is completely inorganic."

"Okay, so how did it get here?" Jack asked. "If it's not Unicron's blood, then where'd it come from?"

"My guess is a meteor must have crashed around here a few thousand years back, scattering debris all over the area."

"So the mummy is a rock collector?" Asked Arcee.

"I'm afraid not, 'cee." June said. "It's a powerful energy source that's extremely unpredictable. Compared to predicting the effects of corodium for a particular race is like trying to explain the complexities of intergalactic politics to Miko. In other words, next to impossible."

"So if it was corodium that mutated these cows and if that mummy gets his hands on more of this..." Raf said.

"He could turn every living thing for miles around that can be effected by corodium into the same kind of monsters."

At an ice cream factory...

"Scanner indicates that the coronium readings are highest right over there." June said as the Rust Bucket pulled into the parking lot of the factory.

"Hold on, Digby Dairy?" Jack looked at the sign on the large building. "Isn't that Miko's favorite ice cream?"

A security guard in a booth by the entrance. He was snoring, which allowed Jack, Arcee, June, and Raf to sneak by easier than if he had been awake.

They entered the factory and followed the trail of corodium energy. They took a left and went down a flight of stairs. The detector beeped faster as they went down the stair until the detector was overloaded and emmited sparks which was followed by a blue smoke being released.

"Well, not getting the deposit for that back." June mumbled. She pocketed the overloaded electronic device. "I'd say there's a big chunk of coronium buried right here, beneath the concrete."

Jack activated the Omnitrix. "I'm on it." He selected Diamondhead and slammed down the dial. Jack's skin was covered by Diamondhead's blueish green crystal. His eyes turned into yellow crystals. Two spikes grew out of his back.

Diamondhead jumped over the railing and onto the concrete floor.

"Jack, wait!" June tried to caution her son, but her warning fell upon deaf ears.

Diamondhead grunted as he stabbed the ground with his hands that he turned into spikes. He continued this until there was a purple light coming out of the hole he formed. "Found it."

"Nice work, genius." Raf said as he and June walked down the steps. "You just did the mummy's work for him."

"Oh, not the best decision I've made."

The lights started to flicker. At the far end of a hall that was lined with various pipes was the Mummy. The lights turned off, when they came back on, the mummy was closer to them.

"Something tells me he's not here for the free samples." Raf whimpered. Diamondhead charged at the Mummy. The mummy jumped, attempting to pounce on Diamondhead, but got impaled on one of the Petrosapien's spear tipped arms.

Arcee winced as she saw that. "Jeez, that's gotta hurt."

The mummy wrapped on of its tendrils around the arm that impaled it. "Hey, let go of me!" Diamondhead tried to shake the mummy off. The mummy then threw Diamondhead into a bunch of machinery. It then grabbed the corodium crystal that Diamondhead dug up and added it to the other pieces it had in its chest.

Stating the obvious, June said: "It's got the coronium."

The mummy roared before a crystal spikes came from where Diamondhead was lying down. They were heading towards the mummy, which it jumped to avoid. It used pipes that were on the ceiling to get over the spikes. It extended its and used them to try to punch an approaching Diamondhead, but were dodged until one was grabbed and used to fling the mummy against a wall. The mummy was then rammed by Diamondhead, which demolished a wall. Diamond head then grabbed the mummy's head and flung the B-movie reject into a generator. June, Raf, and Arcee had caught up to Diamondhead. The mummy wasn't phased by that attack. It got back up and stumbled towards the group. The compartment on its chest unfolded, exposing the corodium.

"He's trying to expose us to the coronium." June said as she and the others walked backwards to try to get away from the mummy.

A door opened and the security guard entered. He didn't know what to make of this situation. "Hey, what in blazes?"

"No! Get back!" June warned, but that was in vain. The mummy turned to face the guard.

"Aah!" The night guard screamed as he was grabbed by the mummy and exposed to the corodium. The guard's eyes turned all purple. His skin became dark purple, a shade that was so dark it was almost black. His jaw unhinged. Most of his teeth fell out, with the few remaining turning into fangs.

June place what looked like a red badge on Raf and Arcee, and then on herself. It formed into a suit that covered all of their bodies.

"What're these June?" Arcee asked.

June explained. "Level-10 hazmat suits. Don't think Raf's parents would appreciate me bringing you home all mutated. And Prime would rather you not become well, something like that." June pointed at the mutated guard.

"Oi, what about me?" Diamondhead complained.

"As long as you're in alien form, you should be safe from the mutation effects."

Diamondhead turn to face his mom and friends. "Define 'should be'?" He was grabbed by the mummy, who wrapped one of its bandage like tendrils around Diamondhead's mouth. "Uhh!" Diamondhead was flung into a wall."

The mutated guard approached them, hopping toward them on its bladed limbs. "Running time!" Arcee shouted as she and the other two humans ran from the creature. They ran into a room with various industrial sized mixers. "Well, here goes nothing." Arcee said. She deployed he blasters and tried to fire at the approaching monster. However, her shots backfired, causing the visor of her hazmat suit to fill up with smoke. She coughed. "Okay. Mental note - never try to fire blasters from inside a hazmat suit."

The mutated guard waved on of its bladed arms at June who dodged it. She then grabbed the mutant's other claw and flung it into a wall.

"Woah! You didn't tell us the suits increase your strength." Raf said.

"They don't the creature we're fighting has the same mass as the guy it was mutated from.

"Oh." Raf saw the mutant run up from behind June. He warned her. "Watch out!"

June looked over her shoulder and saw the mutated guard. She got herself and Raf out of its path.

The mutant ran up a pipe and ran along the top of it while June, Arcee, and Raf ran down a corridor that was below it. It jumped down and prepared to impale them, however, the mutant's strikes were easily dodged.

June stumbled back into a wall. She removed a long pipe from a bracket and held in in front of her. "All right, now. I don't want to hurt you." The mutant sliced the pipe in half. "Well, so much for that idea." The mutant swung at June, but the woman dodged it.

The mutant pursued her. She was running backwards as the mutant followed her. It jabbed at her, but June managed to dodge it. The corodium mutant then jabbed at the ground where June stood, which June dodged. It then raised up both of its claws and then slammed them down. June jumped out of the way and threw the two pieces of pipe that she held in her hands at the mutant, but the freak sliced them. It then slammed the side of one of its blades at June, causing her to fly over a railing. The mutant turned around and saw Raf. Raf ran away from the mutant. Seconds later, the mutant pursued Raf. Raf ran over to a machine with a conveyor belt feeding into it. Raf crawled inside it. The mutant jumped on top of the machine and stabbed the metal rectangular prism at random. Thankfully, Raf was okay and was unharmed. When Raf got out he rolled onto the floor. The creature was about to kill him, but the discount Super Mutant was struck by a length of chain that had a hook on it. Arcee was in her full size robot mode and had used the chain and hook as a makeshift medieval flail.

"Let's wrap this up." Arcee said. The mutant, which had been sent flying landed in another one of the factories' machines. Raf pressed the activate button, which caused the mutant to be dragged into the machine. It was wrapped up in tape and cardboard. Unable to cut through since it was unable to move its limbs.

Diamondhead meanwhile had just dodged a punched made by the mummy. The mummy's fist landed on one of the mixers. Diamondhead then kicked the mummy back before firing several shards of crystal at it, which the mummy avoided by separating itself apart.

The Omnitrix dial blinked red and in a flash of light, Jack was back to being 'normal'. The mummy's eyes widened when it saw what just happened, not in surprise but a lightbulb just went off in its head.

Jack winced and then ran he knew what would happen if the mummy got its bandages on him. Jack hid behind one of the machines as the mummy ran by him. Someone grabbed his shoulder. He was about to scream, but saw that it was June. June placed one of the level 10 hazmat suits on Jack, causing the brownish green and black suit to form around Jack, covering everything except for the Omnitrix.

"Okay. Not my first choice, but it'll do."

June was grabbed by one of the mummy's tendrils and tossed to the side. Jack ran from it. Jack tried to out maneuver the mummy, but the mummy was more than able to keep up with whatever Jack, a human teen that was in above average physical condition was able to.

Jack turned a corner and ran down, the alien mummy in hot pursuit. A container of liquid nitrogen was tossed at Jack. Jack bumped into a barrel of partially melted ice cream, which he used as an oil slick and tripped the mummy, sending it sliding into a control panel.

Jack approached the mummy, which he thought he had defeated. Raf ran up to a control panel and started pressing random buttons. "One of these has got to do something." One of the buttons caused a machine to power up. "There!"

Jack picked up a hose and sprayed the monster of the week with marshmallow. "Eat marshmallow, mummy!" The mummy was forced into a big vat.

Arcee walked over to a lever. "Or maybe you'd prefer peanuts!" She kicked it into the on position, causing thousands of peanuts to fall on the mummy, causing it fall into the blades. It got torn up in the blades.

Jack and Arcee fist bumped.

The two of them walked away from the mummy that they thought was dead.

Jack's ankle was grabbed by the mummy. He shouted: "Help!"

The mummy exited the vat and reformed its body. It began to damage Jack's suit.

"His suit's ripping. He'll be exposed to the coronium."

The mummy then grabbed Jack's left wrist, causing the dial on the Omnitrix to turn yellow. The dial automatically raised up and broke through the mummy's tendril. The symbol of various aliens flashed on the dial before stopping at one that looked exactly like the mummy.

"The omnitrix - it's sampling the mummy's alien dna." June said. "Jack, go alien before you begin to mutate. It's your only hope!" June shouted.

"Alright, time to fight mummy with mummy." Jack slammed down the dial, and instead of getting the mummy, he got Upgrade. "Upgrade? oh, man!" Upgrade slipped out of the mummy's grasp. He reformed behind the mummy. Seconds later, the mummy turned around as slammed Upgrade into two barrels.

"Jack, be careful." June warned. "That stuff is liquid nitrogen. It could freeze you solid in seconds."

Upon hearing this, the circle that made up Jack's eye turned into what resembled a grin. As the mummy approach Upgrade, the galvanic mechamorph liquified and latched onto the two barrels. The nanite infused goo possessed the barrels, turning them black and green, and giving it three spider legs.

"Just wanted to get you all fired up before cooling you way down - permanently.

Upgrade joked. He thought that it would've sounded cooler if Big Chill had said it.

Upgrade fired a transparent blue beam at the mummy, which began to freeze it. After about fifteen seconds, it was finished. "Anybody for an extra-large order of mummy ripple?"

Later...

Upgrade had just finished pouring cement into the hole that they placed the frozen mummy in along with the corodium.

"Nice job, ben." June congratulated her son. "By the time the day shift begins, the concrete will be hard, and no one will ever know a mummy-sicle is buried under there."

"Or that there's a few pieces of mutant making crystals buried with it."

The dial on Upgrade's chest blinked for a few seconds before Jack was returned to normal. "Speaking of mutants, what about the cows and the security guard?"

"Don't worry about them." June said. They weren't exposed long enough for it to be permanent. The guard will just think he had a Kafka esque nightmare.

Outside the factory...

June, Jack, Raf, and Arcee in her human guise exited the factory. "Guess we'd better head back to the farm." June said. "I'm sure joan has more chores for us to do."

"Yeah, about that, mom." Jack began.

Arcee and Jack kneeled on the ground. "Don't make us go back there, please! We've learned our lesson, mom. We'll do our chores from now on - promise!" The pleaded.

"I'll even help out if you want me to." Arcee said.

June had a grin on her face. "Oh, thank goodness. I'd forgotten how much I hated working on great uncle Jedediah's farm when I was a kid. Now, let's get out of here before I get stuck with manure duty again." The group walked over to the Rust Bucket.

Silicon Valley, nighttime...

A humanoid robot that is made out of red and blue metal is seen walking in the direction of a large tower that is vaguely in the shape of a tree. He is red on one half of his body and blue on the other. Who he is shall be revealed next time in The Rose and Violet Android.

Chapter end.


	25. The Red and Blue Android

For this next chapter, let's step back two weeks...

Rust Bucket...

June Darby was looking through a photo album and found a picture of a young black haired boy with a German Shepard puppy.

Jack walked by her, so she decided to show Jack the picture that stood out to her. "Hey Jack, look what I found while looking through some of these photo albums that I kept in here." She Handed Jack the photo.

"Oh, I remember this!" Jack recognized the boy in the picture as himself, but when he was younger than Raf.

"You wanted to keep it, remember." June said, smiling as she remembered a much younger Jack seeing the brown cardboard box on the side of the road that he made her stop to see what was in it, despite it being both dark and rainy.

"Can we keep him?" June remembered a younger Jack asking her. "Please?"

"I wasn't able to keep him." Jack said somberly.

"Yeah, but you did name him, remember." June tried to remember what Jack named the dog. "It wasn't Dogmeat. That was your dad's idea. It was..."

Jack remembered what he named the dog. "It was Jiro." He told his mom with a smile on his face.

Later...

Jack and Arcee, the latter in her Sadie guise were walking down a brick road. Jack had a white bag in his hands while Arcee was carrying a broom.

"Guess we'll be cleaning today." Jack said.

Arcee nodded. They saw a large group of people crowd around something. "Huh? What's going on over there?" Asked Arcee.

"Let's go take a look." Suggested Jack. The two of them went to go see what was so popular.

They saw that people were taking pictures of a man that was wearing a red leather jacket, a black shirt underneath it, and blue jeans. The man had a guitar case on his back. Now that would be normal and wouldn't be worth taking photos of if not for the fact that he seemed to be frozen in place by some mysterious force.

"What the heck is he doing?" Arcee asked.

"Maybe he's a street performer." Jack suggested.

Arcee was confused. "He's not doing anything."

Jack explained. "Some people like to pretend that they're robots."

Feeling a tad offended, Arcee retorted. "Just like some people like to pretend that they're aliens."

"Oh ha ha. But still, you gotta admit it's cool." Jack was about to see how this guy would react if he tapped him, but it started to rain.

Later...

Jack and Arcee, along with several other people were waiting under a bridge for the rain to stop. However, the street performer was still standing in place.

Not wanting this guy to catch a cold, Jack and Arcee ran out into the rain, Arcee using an umbrella to keep herself dry. "Hey! You're gonna catch a cold!" Jack shouted. He grabbed onto the street performer's hand and tried to pull on it. It moved, but the sound of creaking metal was heard. His and Arcee's eyes went wide. Jack tapped his knuckles on the strange man's cheek and the sound that is made when you tap a metal door was heard.

"He's made of metal?" Arcee was in disbelief.

"Then he really is a robot." Jack said.

A bolt of lightning hit a clock, causing the clock to spin around rapidly, the bolt arced from the clock to the metal man. The clock stopped at 11:00. As the clock rang, the metal man stepped forward.

"Look!" Arcee shouted. "He moved." Arcee knew enough about human anatomy to know that if a human was struck by lightning, moving would be the last thing they would do

The man turned to face Jack and Arcee.

Later, at the Rust Bucket...

Jack and Arcee had gotten the robotic human back to the RV. Jack came out of the bathroom with a towel. Arcee was now in her smaller robot mode

"Alright, let's get you dried off." Jack touched the robot's hair to see if it was still wet, and found that it was as dry as Heatblast. "What the? He's already dry."

"But he should be drenched." Said Arcee. Red and Blue energy arced up and down the man.

That caught the attention of Raf, who was reading about a remake of the movie Robocop.

"What the?" Jack saw a green holographic button that had the word REBOOT above it. "What's this? Reboot. Hey Raf, what does this mean?"

Raf walked over and looked at the hologram. "Reboot. It means to restart. It's a term frequently used with computers."

"Hmm. Just what you'd expect from a human made robot." Arcee said.

The man said this and responded. "Robot?"

"Yeah. We're talking about you." Jack said.

"I am a machine?" He saw Arcee. "Are you two also machines?"

"A machine?" Arcee scoffed. "I'm a cybertronian, and Jack's a human."

"But this is a machine." Jack showed the robot man the Omnitrix. "Oh, and I'm Jack Darby, but you can just call me Jack."

"Jack." The man said.

"Yes." Jack then introduced him to his friends. "And this is Arcee. And Raf."

The man turned to face Arcee. "Arcee." The cybertronian nodded.

He turned to face Raf. "Raf."

"Okay." Raf cautiously said.

"Hey, what's your name?" Jack asked. The robotic man turned his head away from Jack. "Your name."

The robotic man faced Jack before answering. "Jiro."

"Jiro?!" Jack was surprised that this guy's name was the same as the dog he couldn't keep.

"Do you remember anything other than your name?" Asked Arcee.

"I don't." Jiro responded.

"He must still be in shock from the lightning." Arcee complained.

"Like a blank computer."

"I got an idea!" Jack spoke up. "You can stay with us until you can remember."

"Jack, your mom's gonna freak." Raf said.

Later...

Jiro was in the Rust Bucket's kitchen cooking. He reached his hand into a pot of boiling water and picked up a piece of potato.

"You picked up a robot?" June, who was taking this far better than expected, said.

"He has amnesia, so I thought maybe reading some books would trigger something. Besides, it's either that or going to cybertron to get his memories from Vector Sigma." Jack joked.

"And how did he handle reading?"

"Well, he went all Johnny 5 and read them in a flash."

June picked up a magazine that had an RV that looked exactly like the rust bucket on the front.

"Hmm, so that's why the Rust Bucket's looking factory new." June then realized that it may be factory new mechanically as well.

"That's a robot like Jiro for you. They always do jobs perfectly."

"True, but he better not've touched all the modifications that my dad made. If he did, then it's off to the scrapyard for him." June threatened.

"Don't worry, he said he found a bunch of things that weren't standard, but he left them alone."

Jiro walked over to Jack and handed him a bowl of Nikujaga(lit. meat potato). "Ah! Hot! Hot!" Jack shouted. He managed to place the bowl down gentluy without breaking it.

Jiro put a bowl of the same dish in front of June. "Wow. You did it perfectly."

"See? And he'll be able to help you out when I'm out fighting aliens."

"Aliens?" Jiro asked. "What are aliens?"

"They're any creature that's not from the earth."

"What do they look like?"

"Mom, can I show him?"

"Sure, go ahead. It's not like he's a threat or anything." June gave Jack to use the Omnitrix in front of Jiro. Jack selected one of his aliens and picked Upgrade. He slammed down the dial and was turned into Grey Matter instead.

"Grey Matter? Seriously Omnitrix, we have a guest."

Jiro reached down and picked up Grey Matter. "Are all aliens this tiny?" The android asked.

"Hardly." Grey Matter scoffed. "There are tons of different aliens, some bigger than the buildings outside. Now could you please put me down?"

"Okay." Jiro placed Grey Matter back on the table. Grey Matter tried to reach the Omnitrix dial to return to being human, but Jiro helped him out by pressing it down for him.

"So, about Jiro, maybe for the time being?" Jack wanted to keep Jiro around, but June thought otherwise.

"Jack, this isn't like picking up a puppy."

"But! I can't just leave him to rust in the rain!" Jack pleaded. "I'll take good care of him."

June gave in. "Fine, but only for a little while."

"Isn't this great Jiro?!" Jack gave Jiro a hug and patted him on the back.

Jiro, in response patted Jack on the back as well, but did so with a lot more force and kind of hurt Jack.

"Hold on, you said his name was Jiro?" June said after chuckling upon seeing Jack get hurt. She stood up from the table and made her way to the dashboard and grabbed the picture of Jack and the puppy that he named Jiro. She handed the picture to Jack. "Just like that dog, remember?"

"Jack, what's this photo?" Jiro asked.

"Me and a dog I wasn't able to keep." Replied Jack. "Sure wish I could've kept him though." As Jack spoke, Jiro scanned the picture.

"Leave it to me." Jiro said. He exited the Rust Bucket.

"Where are you going? What about lunch?" Jack shouted.

Jiro poked his head in the Rust Bucket and whispered: "I don't eat."

June and Jack shrugged. They both picked up a piece of potato with their fork and took a bit out of it. They thought it tasted good, until the salt kicked in.

"Too salty!" Jack groaned.

"In hindsight, we should've expected this. Unlike Arcee, he can't taste things."

The door opened. "I'm back." Jiro came in with a puppy in his hands. He handed the dog to Jack. "I found your dog, Jack."

"No... it was a puppy from when I was a kid." Jack didn't know how to react to what Jiro had done.

"So this isn't it?" Jiro was confused.

Later...

Jack and Jiro were walking through a park.

"Don't feel down." Jack tried to comfort his new robotic friend.

"I apologize. I thought it would please you, Jack."

"You sure are nice." Jack thought that for a robot, Jiro was rather polite.

"I wanted to thank you for saving me."

"Oh? It seems even a robot made by humans can have a heart." Jack said. "Thanks Jiro."

"Help!" Jack heard somebody scream.

"What?" Jack ran to go see what the problem was.

Jack saw a red and black alien that had goat like features was attacking a group of people.

It sidekicked a woman in her chest. Two kids ran by Jack and Jiro.

"Where is the Omnitrix?" The alien asked a man that the alien had by the throat.

"The Omni-what?" The man was scared of the alien. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Another guy who's looking for the Omnitrix." Jack said. "Wait here." He told Jiro. "It's hero time!" Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Heatblast. He got lucky and that was the alien he transformed into.

"What did you do?" Jiro asked.

"I transformed." Heatblast replied.

"Why?"

"To protect people."

Heatblast ran over to the goat alien and kicked it, which got it's attention. The Pyronite punched the alien, sending it back. "Run!" Heatblast told the people that had been attacked by the alien. The alien tried to punch Heatblast, but the blow was blocked. Heatblast then picked it up and threw it against a wall. The goat-demon alien got back up and then charged at the Omnitrix user horns first. Heatblast managed to grab the horns and use those to shove it to the side. Heatblast then flung two fireballs at the alien. "Get out of here!" Heatblast shouted at the people who for some reason have still decided to hang around.

"Protect..." Jiro said to himself. "... people."

Heatblast had been picked up by the goat alien and slammed down onto the ground. Heatblast then got back up and shot a stream of fire at the alien, forcing it back. The alien's eyes glowed red before its horns extended and twisted to form a spiral, which the alien used to drill into Heatblast, causing bits of rock to fly off of the Pyronite. It then used them to whip Heatblast, causing the flaming alien even more pain. It was about to finish Heatblast off, but it noticed in its peripheral vision, a trio of humans that had exited the building that it and Jack fought outside of.

It turned towards them and was going to kill them, but Jiro got in between in and the civilians.

"Watch out, Jiro!" Jack tried to warn his new friend, but Jiro wouldn't listen.

The alien was about to punch Jiro, but a part of Jiro's coding kicked in. He turned his head and punched the goat-demon alien square in the jaw, sending it back. Jiro then approached the alien. The red alien tried to kick Jiro, but its strike was blocked. Jiro then punched the side of the monster's head. The Narnia reject tried to claw Jiro, but he blocked his arms and punched the creature several times.

"Jiro... You..." Heatblast was unable to believe what he was seeing.

Jiro then jumped up and kicked the alien, which sent it rolling into the street.

Defeated, the alien chose to run off.

Heatblast approached a victorious Jiro. "So, are you a combat robot?" He asked.

"Me? A combat robot?" Jiro thought that over. "My body just moved on its own when I thought 'I have to protect those people.'"

At one of MECH's bases...

A black robot with yellow trim along its chestplate was on a table. A light shined on it. Around the table were several MECH scientist and a couple of Forever knights.

"What an interesting android." A MECH scientist said.

"Yes, it is." A forever knight said to the scientist.

"But where did you get it? It doesn't look like one of the Autobots, or even the Decepticons."

"One of the other groups that we fund, DARK had received word of Silas' defeat at the hands of the Autobots and Jack Darby and wished to allow him to be the first test subject for their latest project."

One of the scientists noticed something on a laptop screen. "What's this?" She asked. The image was of an android, but unlike this one, it was red and blue.

"That's just data from that android's memories." Another scientist said. "Scans show that he has two opposite emotions. A legendary hero." The scientist pressed a button on the keyboard, bringing up a textbox that had a word in it.

"Kikaider..." The female scientist said.

At the Rust Bucket...

Jack entered the RV to find Jiro and his mom talking. "I finished the laundry, what's next?" He asked.

"Well, you can help me fix the air conditioner next."

"Mom, don't you think that you might be overworking him?" Jack said.

"Please do not worry, Jack." Replied Jiro.

June was standing on a stool, trying to unscrew the air conditioner cover. She slipped and would've fallen if not for Jiro catching her.

"See? You heard Jiro."

Later...

Jack and Jiro were sitting on a bench that was outside of the Rust Bucket.

"So, do you remember anything?" Jack asked.

"Just a bit..."

"About what?"

"There was someone I had to protect." Jiro responded. "But... I don't remember who that is."

"That's great. Not the fact that you can remember the person you need to protect, but the fact that you know you have to protect someone. It's a big step to remembering who you are."

"I do not want to remember!" Jiro exclaimed.

"But why?"

Jiro turned to Jack. "Protecting means... I will have to fight. I don't like fighting."

Jack got a call on his phone. He answered it to find that it was Arcee.

"Jack!" Arcee said rather loudly.

"What is it 'cee?"

Later...

Jack had arrived at the adress that Arcee had told him to got to. He entered the warehouse and found that it was empty. A few seconds later, Arcee was tossed through a wall and landed a few meters in front of Jack. Arcee was shot at by something, which caused her to collapse.

"Arcee!" Jack shouted as he ran up to his partner. "What happened?" He held her up.

"What out! This guy's tougher than he looks. Jack turned to face a black humanoid robot that hat spiked shoulder pads. A transparent dome with what looked like a brain inside it. It had red optics, yellow lines in its chestplate that resembled the outline of a mask from Bionicle, and a silver belt with a red buckle. It holstered its black pistol and then looked at Jack.

"Good timing." The robot said with a voice Jack should recognize. "I was just thinking that fighting that pathetic Autobot is a waist of my current form's skill set. Don't you think, Mr Jackson Darby?"

"How do you know my name?!"

"It's no surprise that you don't recognize me." The robot said. "It's me. Colonel Leland Bishop. But I believe you know me, as Silas."

"What?!" Jack was unable to comprehend this. "But Optimus and I beat you!"

"True, you and Prime managed to defeat me at that encounter, but though my body was destroyed, my mind survived. And now it resides within this android body."

"Huh?"

"Now... have a taste of Hakaider's power!" Hakaider grabbed his pistol and pointed it at Jack. Jack activated the Omnitrix and turned into Four Arms. Four Arms managed to dodge some of Hakaider's shots, but some hit him, causing him minor damage. When Four Arms went in to punch Hakaider, he dodge the blow and got out of the way. Hakaider then grabbed one of Four Arms' ankles and tossed him into a pile of metal crates. Four Arms got up and punched Hakaider, but that didn't do anything. Hakaider then punched Four Arms, and managed to injure the Tetramand. Hakaider then grabbed Four Arm's clothing and lifted the Tetramand over his head and then slammed him into the ground. Four Arms, who was in a lot of pain, grabbed a chunk of concrete and flung it at Hakaider.

Hakaider in response fired four shots at Four Arms.

"Another killer robot that Silas is controlling. It's stronger than Jiro, maybe even stronger. Still, I gotta admit it's pretty cool." Four Arms commented.

"Oh, Jiro." Hakaider said. "For you to say that name."

"Wait, you know about Jiro?!"

"Jiro..." Hakaider began. "Also known as... Kikaider."

The Omnitrix dial blinked before returning Jack to normal. "Kikaider?"

"A combat robot created by Koumyouji Nobuhiko." Hakaider explained.

"What?"

"Knowing you Darby, you probably assumed he was your friend."

Jack noticed that the Omnitrix had recharged already. He stood up and selected Jackwolf. He transformed and charged at Kikaider, claws ready to strike. Hakaider just stood there, and when Jackwolf tried to claw him, he effortlessly blocked his attacks, then kicked him in the stomach, which distracted the werewolf alien and gave Hakaider an opening to punch Jackwolf's nose causing him further pain. Jackwolf stumbled back, Hakaider kept up with the retreating Loboan. The evil android punched and then kicked Jackwolf to the ground. Hakaider was about to shot Jackwolf, but Jackwolf opened up his muzzle's mandibles and howled at Hakaider, the force of which sent him to the other side of the warehouse. Hakaider recovered and took aim at Jackwolf and was about to fire and kill Jack, but Arcee, who had recovered jumped up and punched Hakaider square in his mechanical jaw. In response, Hakaider grabbed Arcee's arm and ripped it off effortlessly, and then proceeded to beat her with her own arm. He then grabbed Arcee by her neck and threw her against a wall of wooden crates.

"Arcee!" Jackwolf yelled, not wanting to see his partner get hurt. Hakaider then grabbed one of Jackwolf's ankles and tossed him in the same direction as Arcee, causing the Loboan to fall on the amputee autobot.

"That's enough data for now." Hakaider said. "I now take my leave." Hakaider exited the warehouse, leaving the two defeated.

In a flash of red light, Jackwolf was returned to being Jack. He limped over and picked up Arcee's severed arm. He brought it back to her. He notice that Arcee wasn't bleeding.

"Arcee, are you okay?" A concerned Jack asked.

"No."

"We have to get your arm reattached. Do you have a first aid kit on you?"

"Yeah." Arcee reached into her subspace and handed Jack a white box with a green crescent moon on it.

Jack paid the symbol no mind and began the work of patching Arcee up. After a half hour of work, he got the arm attached, but he knew the bandages wouldn't hold, so he decided to improvise. He transformed into Wildvine and used a length of the vines that he was made of to form a cast around Arcee's arm.

Later...

Jack had taken Arcee to the Rust Bucket, where June had made her lie down until her wound had healed. Jack however was sitting on a park bench and was reading an article on wikipedia about Koumyouji Nobuhiko. Jack saw Jiro walk in front of him on the sidewalk. Jack called out "Jiro." to get the android's attention.

Jiro heard this and ran over to Jack. "Jack, I saw what happened to Arcee, and you weren't there so I was worried."

"Jiro. I know what you are." Jack said somberly. "And you're not gonna like it."

"What am I?" Jiro asked Jack as he sat down next to him.

"I don't know how to say this, but, you were made for fighting."

Jiro's artificial eyes went wide. "I'm... a combat robot...

Jack began to explain to Jiro what he read. "A year ago, Dr. Koumyouji Nobuhiko was participating in some project... when he died in a mysterious accident. Some would say he was caught in some conspiracy, but only if they read information off of the internet. An investigation by the Plumbers revealed that the accident was related to the Forever Knights."

"But what good does knowing that do for me?" Jiro asked.

Jack gave Jiro an answer. "You said you had someone to protect. You need to remember." Jack got an idea that might work. "Hey, want to try pressing the reboot button?" Jack suggested. "You might remember something if we do that."

"No." Jiro declined. "If my memories are restored, I might become a robot like that Hakaider the you fought."

"Jiro, I'm sure you'll be fine."

"I am fine as I am now." Jiro said. " I want to be with you and your friends." Jiro stood up and walked off.

"You sure?!" Jack shouted. "You have the power to protect others. Won't you regret not using it?"

Jiro stopped, glanced over his shoulder to look at Jack, the continued to walk away.

MECH base...

Hakaider was battling a couple dozen Forever Knights who were armed with laser spears as well as three robots that resembled Vehicons, but were slightly smaller. Most of the knights had been defeated, as well as two of the Vehicons.

He grabbed the spear of one of the knights and beat that knight over the head with it. Hakaider then blasted four of the knights with the spear's beam setting, incapacitating them. Hakaider turned around and saw that the Vehicon was about to strike him with its hammed, which he grabbed mid swing and ripped off. He tossed the hammer to the side and threw the spear that he still held into the Vehicon's faceplate, which would've killed it if it was real. One of the knight tried to hack at Hakaider's shoulder with his spear, but failed to pierce the black android's armor. Hakaider turned around and threw the knight to the ground, stood over him and said while pointing his gun at the Knight: "Let me destroy you."

A rocket, one similar to the ones that Breakdown shoots was launched at Kikaider, knocking him off of the terrified knight.

"Please stop." One of the overseeing forever knight pleaded. "Our men aren't expendable Silas. We have finished the modifications to the subject, you can now finish project Chimera."

"And be little more than a metal man? In this body I am stronger than any Autobot, Decepticon, or any of Jackson's alien forms."

"True, it's not like he has one that's a giant." One of the MECH scientists agreed.

"And, I can cause a lot more destruction in this form. Perhaps if we combine the subject and Hakaider, I can finally destroy Optimus." Hakaider grabbed one of the scientists by the collar of her lab coat. "Get to work. I want the subject modified to be compatible with my current form by the time I get back." He then let go of her collar.

"Where are you going sir?"

"To destroy my target."

"And do you have a particular target?"

"Of course I do. My target will be..."

With Jiro...

Jiro was walking down the aisles of a grocery store doing some shopping for June.

He saw a little girl and her mother run past him. The girl said to a man that was following them: "Hurry daddy!"

Jiro smiled as he saw the girl's father catch up to her and her mother.

Jiro looked around at the people going about their daily business. 'I have the power to protect others.' He thought about what Jack said.

He heard people screaming. He dropped the basket with the rather strange items in it and ran out of the store to see the goat alien from earlier attacking. From his vantage point, he saw the alien grab a man and check his wrists.

"No Omnitrix!" The alien tossed the man against a wall.

Jiro ran down some stairs and ran up behind a woman that a man tried to protect. The man that the goat alien grabbed was forced against a light post where after checking the man's wrist, the goat alien hissed and was about to deliver a fatal blow to the head, if not for Jack grabbing one of the aliens horns and pulling it off of the victim.

"I'd run if I were you." Jack told the man. The guy nodded and then ran off.

The alien tried to punch Jack, but Jack redirected the blow away from him. He then kicked the Alien's torso a few times, which caused the alien to stumble back. The goat creature then swung at Jack, which he dodged. Jack then punched the alien's chest, which caused the alien no harm. However, when the alien did the same to Jack, Jack was hurt greatly. The alien then bent Jack over and kneed him in the chest, causing Jack further pain. Jack back up. When the alien tried to kick his legs out from under him, Jack performed a backflip and avoided the strike. When the alien went into punch him, Jack jumped and did a round kick and struck the alien's head. The alien, enraged, punched Jack in the face, giving the human a bloody nose. The alien grabbed Jack by his blue jacket and tossed him onto the grass, where he rolled down a hill and onto another sidewalk.

Jack go back up and activated the Omnitrix. He selected Cannonbolt, but when he transformed, he got Stinkfly.

Stinkfly spat a few globs of slime at the goat alien's feet, keeping it in place, but for how long he wasn't sure. He flew up and was about to dive bomb the goat alien tail first, but Stinkfly's opponent anticipated this and blocked the Lepidopterra's strike. Stinkfly and the goat alien got into a duel, Stinkfly using his tail as a sword, the goat alien using its armored fists to block.

As the two aliens dueled, Jiro noticed something approach him from behind. He turned around to see Hakaider.

"You are..." Jiro knew who this android was.

"I will destroy you." Hakaider said with the voice of Silas, which Jiro didn't recognize. Hakaider ran up and grabbed Jiro and tossed him into a parking garage, sending the human like android through a chain link fence. Hakaider laughed as he approached Jiro. He reached for his gun and pointed it at his opponent. "Hakai! Hakai! Hakai da!" Hakaider fired at Jiro, wounding him, which caused a blue liquid to leak out of the hole in Jiro's body. Hakaider than ran up the Jiro and punched him with as much force as he could and dented that part of Jiro's body. Jiro tried to fight back, but it was futile, Hakaider was a much better fighter. For every punch or kick Jiro tried to throw, Hakaider could counter it and deliver two to the android. With Jiro nearly beat, Hakaider pointed his pistol at Jiro and was about to pull the trigger, but Jiro grabbed Hakaider's arm and forced the evil android to fire at the concrete ceiling.

Stinkfly and the goat alien arrived in the parking garage. Stinkfly was loosing, much like Jiro.

Hakaider was about to pistol whip Jiro, but the good android held his arm in place, but Hakaider used this as an opportunity to kick Jiro's chest. Jiro was on his knees. Hakaider punched Jiro's left cheek and sent him to the ground.

"Jiro!" Stinkfly clawed at the goat alien with his three clawed hands, which stunned his opponent. Stinkfly flew over to Jiro to see if he was okay.

Hakaider had gotten Jiro back on his feet, and immediately delivered an uppercut to Jiro's jaw.

"Stop!" Stinkfly shouted. He spat a glob of goo at Hakaider, getting the evil android's attention. Stinkfly grabbed onto Hakaider and tried to cut his legs off with his tail, but the metal was too strong to be cut. Hakaider proceed to beat the crap out of Stinkfly, drawing his attention away from Jiro.

"I..." Jiro said as he got up. "I... I..." Jiro saw that the alien goat monster had joined Hakaider in whaling on Stinkfly. "...will fight."

Hakaider and the alien were thrown off Stinkfly. Stinkfly got up, but was limping. "Hakaider shot!" Hakaider fired at Stinkfly, knocking him down.

"Jack." Jiro said to Stinkfly, who was lying on the ground in front of him. "Please press the reboot button."

"Jiro..." Jack was about to warn Jiro about what he thought Jiro feared.

"I won't become like that."

Hakaider laughed upon hearing this.

Stinkfly got up and looked at Hakaider. "Of course! You'll be fine! I'm sure."

"Then please do it."

"Okay." Jiro turned around. The holographic reboot button appeared. Stinkfly twisted it and then pressed it down.

Jiro's fell unconscious, then woke up seconds later. A bright white light appeared on his head. A burst of energy was released, causing the alarms of all the cars on this level of the parking garage to go off.

"Switch On!" Jiro said. In the span of a few seconds, his human guise vanished and his robot form was revealed, the red and blue form of Kikaider.

"Woah." Stinkfly was amazed. Kikaider reached over to the Omnitrix dial on Stinkfly's face and turned it then pressed it down, transforming Stinkfly into Diamondhead.

"Oh..." Hakaider said. "That's the legendary hero... Kikaider's true form!"

"Let's do this like a machine." Kikaider said with Jiro's voice, only it sounded muffled.

"Alright!" Diamondhead agreed. He formed his arms into blades. Diamondhead and Kikaider charged at the alien goat and Hakaider. Kikaider battled Hakaider, while Diamondhead fought the goat creature. They traded opponents, Kikaider fought the goat monster, while Diamondhead battled Hakaider.

The goat alien tried to use its drill horns on Kikaider, but found that they had no effect of the heroic android's chassis. Kikaider pulled the horns off of him and chopped them, getting rid of one of his current opponent's moves. Blue energy built up in Kikaider's fist, which when he punched the goat alien, caused the energy to be transferred to the alien, causing a lot of damage.

As Diamondhead battle Hakaider, Diamondhead was able to tank anything Hakaider could throw at him, but Hakaider was just as tough. Hakaider threw a punch a Diamondhead, which the petrosapien dodge. Diamondhead then grabbed onto Hakaider's hand and toss him over the car whose window got destroyed by one of Hakaider's punches.

Kikaider kicked the goat monster in the chest, sending it flying back. He then ran over to help Diamondhead fight Hakaider. Hakaider, who had broken off a piece of Diamondhead's armor, was about to use it to impale the Petrosapien, but Kikaider grabbed his hand and flipped him away. He helped Diamondhead up.

Hakaider grabbed the car that he landed by and was going to use it to crush the two heroes, but the two heroes grabbed the car mid swing and took it out of Hakaider's grasp. They placed the car down and jumped over the car. Diamondhead forming his fist into a spiked ball, while Kikaider's fist emitted red energy both of their punched caused massive damage to Hakaider, who was forced to back up. Diamondhead and Kikaider took turns punching Hakaider, until they both struck him at the same time, sending Hakaider towards the wall of the parking garage.

"It can't end here..." Hakaider refused to admit defeat. He fired a single shot at the car that he tried to use as a weapon, causing it to explode, then one at the wall that was behind him, allowing him to escape.

"He's getting away!" Diamondhead wanted to go after Hakaider, but they still had to deal with the goat demon alien. "Let's go!" Diamondhead readied his crystal firing hands. Kikaider ran up and did a slide kick, which stunned the alien. Diamondhead then got a more fun idea. He formed a large sphere of crystal, which he then launched towards the goat alien. Kikaider then kicked it, giving it more power. When the energized crystals collided with the alien, the alien was atomized, leaving only a small amount of black dust.

The Omnitrix dial on Diamondhead's chest blinked red before Jack was back to being normal. "We did it Jiro!" Jack said. He looked around, and found that Kikaider was gone. "Jiro?!"

Jack heard a somber tune being played on an electric guitar. He followed the source of the sound and found Jiro walking down the sidewalk while playing on his electric guitar.

Jack ran up and shouted: "Jiro!"

Jiro stopped playing the song and faced Jack. "Who are you?" He asked.

"It's me! Jack!"

"So, your name is Jack."

Jack then remembered what reboot meant. On the article that he looked up, it said that at reboot erases all data. "I see." Jack was a bit depressed. "So that's what the reboot did." He said to himself. "So, do you remember who you are now? Don't you?"

Jiro nodded. "I have an important mission."

"Mission?"

"It will start soon. A powerful enemy will make their move." Jiro explained. "There is someone I have to protect. There is somewhere I must go. Someone important is waiting there." Jiro turned and walked off, playing his guitar as he did so.

"I see. Take care then." Jack told Jiro. Jiro gave no responce.

Sunset, in the Rust Bucket...

June was tending to Arcee's wound when Jack entered the RV. June looked to see that Jiro wasn't with Jack.

"Where's Jiro?" June asked.

"He's going to where he's needed."

"Did he remember his real mission?" June smile, but inwardly, she was frowning. "Of course. What a pity."

MECH base...

Hakaider arrived in the base, defeated by Jack Darby and Kikaider.

"Sir, we're ready to integrate Hakaider into the subject like you wanted." A scientist said.

"No, cancel that order! I want project Chimera to have nothing to do with this monstrosity."

"What do you mean sir?" The scientist asked.

"For someone like me to be possessed with the impulse of for destruction, this power is too dangerous for MECH to control."

"What do you want us to do?" Another scientist asked.

"Get my mind out of this android and back in my body, then, undo all the modifications that would make Hakaider compatible with the subject. I don't care how long it takes! Just get it done!" Hakaider laid down on an operating table. "I can't believe the organization DARK requires something like this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First Fallout and now Kikaider? What's next?Next time; Jack has to cooperate with Vince when they're abducted by aliens.
> 
> And now, a vocabulary lesson; Kikaider is based of of the Japanese word for machine(kikai), much like how Hakaider is based on the word for destruction(hakai), so when Hakaider was shouting Hakai da, it sounds like he's shouting his name.


	26. Grudge Match

Somewhere the midwest...

The Rust Bucket had been overturned, not by the wind, but by you guessed it, one of Jack's alien adversaries. Come to think of it, one of his human foes could've been responsible for it too. But the cause of this attack was infact of alien origin. The attacker had put Arcee, June, and Raf into a state of partial consciousness. Jack however was in his petrosapien form, Diamondhead and was fighting the attacker, Vince, who apparently holds a grudge against Jack, despite the fact that Jack had nothing to do with causing Vince's current mutated appearance.

Diamondhead was thrown against one of the windmills. "You're one sorry sight, Rockhead." Vince 11 mocked.

Diamondhead got back up and started walking over to Vince. "That's Diamondhead, and speaking of sorry sights, have you looked in the mirror lately?" Jack retorted, referring to Vince's current form, which was a frankenstein like combination of Omnitrix aliens.

"Well, now that you mention it, I think it's payback time for turning me into a freak!"

"You were always a freak, Vince. It's just now the ugly is also on the outside.

"Diss me all you want. I'm still ten times better than you. I've got all your powers plus my own. I'm Vince 11!" Vince raised up his arm in triumph, then brought it down, firing several crystal shards at Diamondhead.

The crystal shards did no damage to Diamondhead. One of the shards was caught by Diamondhead right before it hit his chest. "Too bad each one of those is only a tenth as powerful as mine." Diamondhead then crushed the shard that he held in his hands. He then started walking towards Vince, who in retaliation, spat a stream of Stinkfly goo at Diamondhead's face. "Eww." Diamondhead was disgusted. "Miko's right." That sentence deep down injured Jack. "This stuff is gross." Vince charged at Diamondhead, he leaped onto the Petrosapien, grabbing onto him and flying up to the tops of the windmills. Diamondhead was then thrown into the center of the three blades, destroying it.

"Ha ha!" Vince laughed his handiwork. "Huh?" He saw that Diamondhead had grabbed the blades that he was thrown into and tossed them at the still flying Vince like they a frisbee. Vince was struck by the improvise shuriken and crashed, but got up in a few seconds. Vince and Diamondhead glared at each other and then charged. They were about to punch, but a red light had immobilized the two combatants.

They disappeared, leaving no trace.

Arcee, in her smaller robot form climbed out of the rust bucket. She was still uneasy in her movements. She looked around for Jack, but found neither him nor Vince. "Jack?"

Somewhere...

Diamondhead materialized in a pitch black area. He finished his punch when the red light that brought him here disappeared. A spotlight shined on him. "What happened? Where am I?"

The voice of what seemed to be an announcer spoke up. "Presenting our newest challenger from planet Earth."

The lights came on, revealing to Diamondhead that he was in some sort of arena. "Hold on, challenger?" Diamondhead failed to notice the murky green object approach him from behind as he looked around at the cheering crowd. The object was some kind of robot. When it got right behind Diamondhead, arms and legs unfolded from it, giving it a humanoid shape. "Easy now." Diamondhead nervously said as he backed up from the robot. "You look upset." Sword like blades formed at the ends of the robot's arms. The robot used them to attack Diamondhead. It brought its twin swords down, however, Diamondhead managed to get out of the way. It then tried to jab at the petrosapien, but Diamondhead caught the swords. Two more arms came out of the robot's shoulders. It then bent down and tried to cut Diamondhead's shoulder spikes using the secondary arms. It then brought its larger arms up and then brought them down, attempting to wound Jack's petrosapien form with a stronger blow, but once again, Diamondhead managed to get out of the way. The robot charged at Diamondhead, who rolled to the right to get out of the way. The robot got its swords stuck in the wall of the arena.

Little did Jack know, but he wasn't the only one fighting. Four others, one of which was Vicce was engaging the same robots.

Diamondhead swung his arm and fired several dozen crystal shards at the robot. His mechanized opponent blocked them. The robot was distracted, and Diamondhead ran up to the robot and used his blade arm to slice off one of the robot's swords. The robot then sliced at Diamondhead, and instead of dodging it, he blocked it. The blade managed to break through Diamondhead's skin. "Time to play can opener." Diamondhead formed his left arm into a blade and charged at the robot. He dodged one of the robot's strikes and got up close. He slice through the robot's legs, causing the automaton to collapse. The crowd cheered upon seeing the conclusion of the fight.

In a dark room illuminated by red lights, a being with a head that resembled a UFO watched the fights. It looked upon a victorious Diamondhead. "This one has spirit." He said in a rather calm, yet unsettling tone.

He then looked at a screen showing Vince fighting the same robot that Jack did. "You want a piece of me?" Vince used his Diamondhead arm to block a strike from the robot. "I eat wimps like you for breakfast." He then hopped onto the robot and used Ripjaws' teeth and jaws to rip off the robot's yellow spherical head. Vince then kicked the robot to the wall and spat out the head. Despite the fact that Vince bit the robot's head off, it was still functional. "Oh, you want some more?" Vince let the robot get within a few feet of him before bolting to the other side of the robot and the grabbing onto it's left arm and ripping it off. The robot stumbled back. Vince sprinted at the robot and used the severed arm as a bladed weapon to slice the robot in half. He then tossed legs and lower torso at the upper torso and arms, which were trying to get back over to Vince by moving like a spider. He then tossed the arm that he used to cut the robot in half at the severed torso, causing it to explode. The robot was finally dead.

The mysterious being that one could assume was the one who ran this place observed a triumphant VInce. "Sadistic, cruel, merciless- True gladiator material."

He then looked back over to the screen with Diamondhead, who had the robot that he fought impaled on one of his arms. The robot futilely tried to hack at Diamondhead, but for all intents and purposes was lightly slapping the petrosapien.

The Omnitrix dial on Diamondhead's chest blinked red, and in a flash of red light, Diamondhead went back to being Jack. The robot would've crushed Jack, had he not gotten out of the way. The robot got up and moved insect style towards Jack, trying to slice at his feet.

The crowd had seen that the one that they were cheering turned out to be a human.

Jack, knowing he was beat, ran from the robot. "Did I mention that I didn't want to fight?" Jack asked the robot, but to no avail. He was running from the robot that seemed intent on ending him. The robot then tripped Jack up unintentionally, which was followed by Jack flying about five feet and landing near the arm that he had sliced off. The robot was about to crush Jack, but he managed to used to arm to impale the robot, offlining it.

"A human." The overseer said as it observed Jack. "Resourceful." He then saw the crowd cheering for Jack after seeing his victory. "And a crowd pleaser. I'll make a handsome profit from these two."

The walls around Jack lowered, putting Jack and Vince in the same area. "You." Jack glared at the bully turned Omnitrix mutant.

Vince stomped towards Jack. "What is up with sending me to this freaky place?" Vince tried to crush Jack with his Diamondhead arm, but Jack got out of the way.

"I had nothing to do with this." Jack said.

"Well, if you didn't, then who did?" Vince was about to punch Jack, but was stopped when the red light that brought them here shown from where they stood, teleporting them out of the arena and into a room made of dark grey metal.

"Okay. I definitely do not like that." Jack was approached by a robot that resembled a samurai in structure, only it seemed to be made out of the same material as the robots that Vilgax uses. It moved on an orange sphere. Vince too was approached by a robot that was identical in every respect.

The robots wielded orange bladed axes that had black handles. The robot that approached Jack pinned Jack to the ground with the handle of its axe and attached something to Jack's chest. It grey circle with three smaller dots around the outside of it.

"Hey, hands off." Vince said after the robot that approached him placed the same device on him. The robot then pressed a button on its wrist, sending a large bolt of electricity through him. "Ugh! Aah! ungh!" Vince groaned

Jack was issue the same type of pain as well, despite the fact that he did nothing to antagonize the robots. "Where are we?" Jack asked after the pain subsided. He then looked up and saw through a window, the Earth. "Sorry I asked." Jack knew this was bad. "We've got to find a way off this ship and back home."

"This is your home now." An alien that was encased with dull silver armor said. "Escape is impossible."

"We have all been taken from our native worlds and forced to fight for our lives for the entertainment of the galaxy." An armored green skinned alien with yellow spherical eyes said.

Vince was pissed and lashed out at Jack, pinning him against the wall of the ship that they were now a prisoner of. "This is all your fault Darby!"

"How the hell can this be my fault?" Jack spat at Vince.

Vince turned his Diamondhead arm into a blade and held it in a manner that had it poised to strike. "I don't know. It just is." A quick jolt of electricity was sent through Vince and Jack, causing Vince to drop Jack.

A buzzer went off. "Meal time." A light blue salamander like alien said.

On a conveyor belt that folded out from the wall, trays that had mounds of purple goop rolled out. The alien prisoners started eating this, as did Vince, but Jack, being a human, found it disgusting, and tried to politely refuse whatever this stuff was. "Thanks, but no thanks. I had purple slop for lunch."

"You should eat before Technorg demands his offering." The salamander alien told Jack. On a side note, he sounds like he's clinically depressed.

"Who's Technorg?" Vince asked.

The sound of heavy stomping was heard. It was getting closer and closer to the prisoners.

When Technorg, a massive orange skinned alien as tall as Vilgax entered to room, all of the prisoners, minus Jack and Vince kneeled. "The reigning champion. You would be wise to show respect." The green alien said.

Jack didn't want to cause any trouble, so he kneeled like the others did, however, Vince did no such thing.

Technorg took the trays of purple goop one by one and ate all that was left on it, however, Vince used his tail to pick up the tray by Jack and toss it at Technorg.

"Wow." Vince put the blame on Jack. "Major disrespect. You gonna take that from him?" He pointed at the sole human in the room.

Technorg grabbed Jack and held him about a foot from his face. "Look." Jack nervously said. "I don't want to" Steam came out of one of the vents on Technorg's left shoulder. Jack coughed when what he hoped was steam hit his face. Technorg then slid him down the conveyer belt, causing the remaining trays to be knocked over.

"Ha ha ha!" Vince laughed at Jack's misery.

"Okay." Jack got back up. "That's it." He activated the Omnitrix and selected Four Arms. "You want to fight? Try picking on someone your own size!" Jack slammed the Omnitrix down and assumed his Tetramand form.

Four Arms delivered an uppercut to Technorg, sending the orange skinned alien back.

"This human is full of surprises." The overseer said as it watched to footage of Four Arms battling Technorg. "Bring them to me." The red light that teleports things appeared under Four Arms and VInce, bringing the two of them as well as two shogun robots to the room that the overseeing being was operating in.

The robots pinned Four Arms and Vince to the floor. "Hey!" Vince grunted.

The one in charge spoke. "I am Slix Vigma." He said. "This is the megacruiser. Everything on this ship belongs to me, including you."

"I don't belong to nobody, Slix, you sor-." Vince was shocked by the device on his chest.

"I speak. You listen." Slix explained. "These eyes see everything on this ship, and these hands control everything on this ship, and I have decided that your relationship will make you an entertaining team in the arena.

"Team?" Four Arms thought that this was a dumb idea.

The robots attached shackles to Four Arms and VInce, connecting the two with a blue energy chain.

"No! I'm not going around tied to this loser." Vince complained.

"You took the words right out of my mouth, freakazoid." Four Arms responded. they were both then shocked.

"Your fates are now linked." Silx explained. "If one of you should happen to expire, the shackles will ensure The other does, as well. Now, your next opponent awaits."

Vince and Four Arms were teleported out of the room and into the arena.

The two chained together enemies saw the one that they were fighting. It was Technorg. "There's only room for one Champion here." Technorg explained to his two opponents."Me." Technorg lunged at the two. Four Arms and Vince tried to run in opposite directions, but their shackles prevented that, and allowed Technorg to easily tackle them. Technorg proclaimed victory over the two, much to the approval of the cheering spectators.

"Nice move, moron." Vince insulted.

"Give it a rest, Vince. This is both our problem."

Technorg's shadow appeared above the two.

"Huh?" Vince was caught off guard by this. Technorg grabbed the energy chain and spun the two around and tossed them into a wall. Things were looking bad. To make matters worse, the Omnitrix decided that this was a good time to time out seconds after Four Arms and Vince landed.

Vince was pissed that he had to work with Jack in his human state, which was useless in a fight against a foe like Technorg.

"Oh great. Now I'm stuck with a piece of dead weight, but not for long." Vince picked up Jack with his Diamondhead arm and held Jack up. and was about to crush him, but a jolt of electricity made Vince drop Jack.

"Hey dumbass, remember the whole 'your fates are now linked' speech? It was only, like, two minutes ago." Jack said to a collapsed Vince after he landed on the ground.

Technorg was diving from up above the two and was going to use his mace arm to crush them. Some part of that attack was explosive, but regardless, the blast sent Jack and Vince flying.

Vince landed first, and Jack, who would've been critically injured if he landed on the ground, but he landed on Vince's head. Vince got up and ran, dragging Jack along with him.

Jack yelled and groaned as he was dragged, the ordeal causing his rear a lot of pain.

When Vince stopped running, which gave Jack a chance to get up, he laughed. "Oh, gee, I'm sorry. Did that hurt?" He said, sarcastically mocking Jack.

Jack saw an approaching Technorg and thought up a plan. He grabbed part of the chain that connected him to Vince and ran towards Technorg, using it to trip him, causing the champion to fall on Vince.

"Ow!" Vince groan from underneath a collapse Technorg. He saw Jack just standing their with a smirk on his face. "Hey, you did that on purpose!"

"Duh." Jack said in a Miko like fashion.

The crowd was booing, which Technorg found insulting. "Boos? No one boos Technorg. Technorg is champion!" Technorg proclaimed.

"Let's get some distance between us and him while he's distracted." Jack whispered to Vince. He thought Vince would've listened to reason so he ran off, but he didn't get far when the chain pulled the two back together. "Uh!" Jack groaned as he hit the ground.

"You're not the boss of me, pus bag." Vince didn't take kindly to taking orders.

"Hey, if we're gonna stay alive, we have to work together." Jack told Vince, but he wouldn't listen to reason.

"Why would I want to work with you? You're useless, even with that dumb watch." Vince actually brought up a good point. The Omnitrix is as much a liability as it is an asset. "I can take care of this prick myself." Vince got up and spat a stream of goo at Technorg, then fired crystal shards, which did nothing to hurt him, if anything, it annoyed him.

Technorg roared in frustration and went after Vince, who continued to shoot crystals at him.

"You were saying?" Jack said. Vince snarled and started shooting fire at Technorg with his Heatblast arm. That attack failed to hurt Technorg either. However, when a bit of fire bounced off of Technorg and landed on a puddle of goo, causing it to explode, Jack got an idea. "that's it!" Jack proclaimed.

"What do you mean by it? Stop playing the pronoun game with me!" Vince complained.

"Mix Stinkfly goo with Heatblast fireballs." Jack explained.

"What for?"

"Just do it. Trust me." Jack said.

VInce spat a stream of goo at Technorg then blast a beam of fire at him, causing an explosion that knocked the orange titian back.

The crowd was cheering after seeing Jack and Vince topple Technorg.

"Cool." Vince thought that what Jack suggested wasn't such a bad idea.

"If you use your powers in combinations, they make up for not being as strong as my alien forms." Jack explained. Okay, Jack go on Vince's back and held onto his shoulders. "for example, XLR8's speed plus Four Arms' strength plus Diamondhead invulnerability, equals-" Jack let Vince put the pieces together.

"One mean punch." Vince ran at Technorg, who only got up a few seconds ago. He and Technorg collided. Vince turned to face Technorg, who at first seemed to be okay, but seconds later, his mace are fell off. His mouth hung wide open when he saw Vince bolt towards him.

Technorg was knocked out. The crowd then cheered for the victors.

"Presenting our new champion." The announcer, who may have been Slix using a voice filter, said.

"Oh, yeah." Vince gloated. "That's right. Who's bad?"

Jack rolled his eyes and said to Vince what he had been wanting to for years. "You are so pathetic."

A hologram of Slix Vigma appeared, allowing Jack and Vince to see what he looked like. He had eyes that were the same color as Diamondhead's body, grey metal limbs, and wore a dark red and orange robe. "Now, finish him off." The hologram said.

Being bloodthirsty, Vince approached a downed Technorg. "Gladly."

"Vince, no!" Jack hopped off of Vince's back when he got close to Technorg. Jack grabbed the chain and yanked it, causing Vince to draw his attention away from Technorg.

"That's it." Vince had enough of this. "It's go time, again." Vince reached down to his ankle and grabbed the energy chain and tossed it along with Jack in his direction. Vince loomed over Jack and was about to deliver a killing blow, but both he and Jack were shocked, causing both great pain.

A large hologram of Slix appeared in the arena. "Mercy? What a novel concept." Prepare for galactic hyperjump. I need to recruit some new blood worthy of our champions."

Later...

Vince and Jack entered the room where their first encounter with Technorg happened. As soon as they entered, the prisoners kneeled before Jack and Vince.

Vince liked the treatment and made no attempt at hiding his enjoyment. "Nice to finally get a little respect around here."

They came to Technorg, who they failed to notice until now. "Thanks for letting him live, dipshit." Vince insulted Jack.

Technorg kneeled in front of Jack. "You bested the best, then spared my life." He held out a tray of the purple goo in front of Jack. "Now you are my master."

Vince decided to take credit for Jack's choice. "Actually, it was all my idea." He took the tray and dumped the purple substance into his mouth and swallowed it.

"I don't want to be your master. I just want to get back to Earth." Jack said.

Technorg looked over his shoulder at the guards and then back at Jack. "Even if you could break free of your collar and escape, the ship will soon be traveling to another galaxy."

Jack didn't like the sound of that. If he didn't do something, he would probably never see the Earth, his friends, or family ever again. "There must be some way to get to the guards' collar controls."

"We have all tried. None of us are powerful enough to overtake them." Technorg explained.

Jack thought that over. He came up with an idea. Jack's frown turned into a grin. "Maybe not alone, but if we all work together..."

Later...

Jack sat against a wall, his face hidden by his knees. He looked up winked. 'Time to put the plan into action.' He thought to himself.

Technorg saw Jack's wink and used his knee to tap a worm like alien with a water filled helmet. It used its tail to then tap Vince's shoulder.

Vince groaned. "I can't take it anymore!" Vince roared. "I got to get off of this ship now." Vince shot a fireball at the wall, and then crystal shards at the guards.

Technorg stood up and pointed at Vince. "Stop him! He's out of control!" He and several others piled onto Vince. The guards activated the shock collars, which worked, but then suddenly ceased to function.

"The shock collars. They're disabled." The bug eyed alien was in disbelief.

One of the robot samurai approached the green alien. Grey Matter walked out of the guard's shoulder, holding two wires, one in each hand. "All it takes is a short circuit and a little Grey Matter." The Galvan joked.

"Eh, get over yourself, short stuff." VInce didn't find that particularly impressive. "A monkey could have done what you did."

"Oh, then why didn't you?" Grey Matter retorted

One of the remaining guards tried to activate the collars but was punched by Technorg.

"Freedom!" He proclaimed.

"Come on." Grey Matter said as the prisoners started attacking the guards. He and Vince then left.

"Just when I'm starting to have some fun." Vince disappointingly said. He and Grey Matter, who was using a hijacked guard, made their way out of the prisoner chamber, and headed towards the center spire.

Later, Slix Vigma's chamber...

Vince opened a door that seemed to be inspired by Japanese styles. The room was bare, apart from a black U shape.

"The controls to the escape pods should be somewhere." Grey Matter hopped off of the robot, causing it to fall over. He and Vince ran into the room. That Slix guy said he controls everything on this ship from here."

"Actually, that's not quite accurate." Six green holographic screens with Slix on them appeared. "What I said was these hands control everything on this ship, including them," About a dozen or so Samurai robots surrounded Grey Matter and Vince. "and unlike you, they have no problem finishing off their opponents." Grey Matter panicked when he saw the blades of the robots' axes. "Like I told you, these eyes see everything, and so will everybody else. "But your demise will not be the opening act. Theirs will."

In the arena...

The footage of Grey Matter, Vince, and Slix was broadcast on several screens in the arena. The escaped prisoners were standing in the center. The floors receded, revealing what was underneath, a pit of aliens that resembled Wildmutt, but had legs like insects instead of paws. The prisoners found themselves on a circular platform surrounded by death.

Back with Vince and Grey Matter...

Grey Matter barely knew these people, heck, Technorg tried to kill him and Vince, but he knew that they were forced to do so. And they deserved to escape.

"If we're going down..." Grey Matter got angry.

"We're going down fighting!" Vince pounded his fist together. Vince and Grey Matter charged at the robots.

One of the robots fired a yellow beam of energy at Vince, but he managed to dodge it. Vince then punched the robot's head in, offlining it.

Another one tried to swing at Vince, but it missed and gave up the element of surprise. Vince proceeded to grab that robot and smash it against another one. A fourth battle bot tried to stab Vince, but the Omnitrix mutant grabbed the axe with his Diamondhead arm and melted through the samurai bot. He threw the axe like a spear at another robot, pinning it and another to a wall. Three more robots were firing at Vince and Jack. Vince tossed Grey Matter onto one of the robots. The Galvan got to work immediately and made some modifications, giving him control of this robot. Grey Matter used the robot that he controlled to blast the other two robots. He then exited that robot, but not before pulling a few wires that made the commandeered robot self destruct.

"Nice teamwork." Grey Matter said sincerely.

"If you try to hug me, you're gonna get slugged." Vince said in response.

Before Grey Matter could respond, the Omnitrix beeped, and Jack was in place of his Galvan form. A door opened and several samurai robot entered the room. Vince grabbed Jack by the back of his jacket and placed him on his shoulders. They ran out a door and came to a balcony. They saw the ex prisoners at the edge of the circular platform, arms restrained.

Technorg however used his immense strength to rip apart his bonds and tried to attack the guards, but was subdued quickly.

He was forced to the edge of the platform but wasn't pushed off. He was pressed against an invisible barrier.

"What is the meaning of this?" Technorg questioned why his death was being delayed.

A hologram of Slix Vigma appeared. It spoke: "These creatures are not what are going to end these fools, they are merely food for the true beast."

A loud grumbling was heard. In the pit with all the Vulpimancer like aliens, a doorway appeared. Out of it walked a large creature, at least as tall as Optimus. It was a reptile that stood on two digitigrade saurian legs, but that's where it's similarities to dinosaurs ended. It had two arms that had hands with five one meter long claws on each hand. Its arms were functional, as demonstrated when it reached down and grabbed one of the fleeing Vulpimancer like aliens and bit it in half. Atop its body was ahead full of teeth that could rival most species in the galaxy. Top it off with two long, slightly curved horns, and you have one of the deadliest creatures ever known. Some may call this creature a demon, but they would be wrong. But monster is just as bad as any demon. It was a creature known by one simply name. If one didn't already know, this creature is a Deathclaw.

The force field disappeared, and the Deathclaw picked up the scent of prey.

Technorg fell into the Deathclaw's pit but did not get within reach of the reptilian horror. He caught the edge of the platform.

The Deathclaw's predatory mind formulated a plan to get up to the platform. The moved its massive form underneath the platform and used its razor sharp talons to climb up.

Technorg pulled himself back to the platform, but that would be only a brief delay in the path to his imminent death.

As the Deathclaw made its way towards the prisoners, Slix Vigma watched on, unaware that Jack and Vince were falling towards him. They landed on him, catching the all seeing eyebot off guard.

Vince held Slix over his head. "What do you think of this?"

"Ease up." Jack cautioned. "We still need him to release the Escape pods."

"I am done listening to you." Vince tossed Slix into the arena, landing him at were the Deathclaw was about to pere up from where it was climbing.

Slix got up and saw that nothing was going to according to his plan. "This is not part of the show. I command you to stop... stop... stoo... st...op." Slix began to spark, as did the robots. However, the Deathclaw was unfazed.

Jack got another idea. "Wait a minute. Of course." Before Jack could speak up, Vince grabbed him and jumped from the balcony into the arena. "Uh! Vince, wait." Vince went over to pick up Slix and toss him at the Deathclaw, but there was a flash of green light, and when Vince looked at Slix, he had the same color scheme and texture that a machine possessed by Upgrade did.

"What? Vince placed the Upgrade possessed Slix down. "How did you?"

"I said wait." Jack removed Slix's robe to show that Slix was in fact a hover bot. "This guy doesn't just operate the control console, he is the control console, and now control everything on this ship." The Deathclaw roared. "Except for that."

"Well, goody goody for you. So long as I'm not tied up to your ugly butt anymore." Vince removed the chain that had connected him to Jack.

"Now," A floating platform that resembled a flat top pyramind flew towards Upgrade and Vince. Upgrade hovered up to it. "time deal with the Deathclaw."

"Deathclaw? What's a Deathclaw? That's a lamer name than any of your ali- ah!" Vince was grabbed by the Deathclaw and was moved towards the reptilian monster's mouth, but Vince broke off one of the Deathclaw's fingers and used it to stab the hand that held him.

The Deathclaw roared in pain, but only breathly. Its wound healed and the severed finger grew back in seconds.

"That would be a Deathclaw." Upgrade said. "That might be a problem." He saw that the Deathclaw could recover from whatever was thrown at it, from blows to its shins from Technorg's mace arm, to damage caused by Vince's mixing of alien powers, nothing could stop it. "Come on." Upgrade caused several guns to pop up. He aimed them at the Deathclaw and fired them. They were hurting it, but the Deathclaw was still too strong. It moved from one gun to the next and ripped them out with it's claws, until once again, it could focus on the small beings attacking it.

"I got it!" Upgrade proclaimed. "If we can't beat it, make it someone else's problem." The red teleporting light shown under the Deathclaw. Seconds later, it disappeared, dropping the prisoner that it was about to consume. "Phew. Panic over."

"Where'd you send it?" Vince asked.

"Away."

Kaon...

The teleportation beam appeared in the capital city of the decepticons, along with the Deathclaw. When the red light disappeared, the Deathclaw looked around at the metal structures and wondered what happened. It was shot by a red laser bolt, which didn't ever wound the creature. The Deathclaw turned to see an Insecticon in its robot mode. The Deathclaw charged at the Insecticon, grabbed it and ripped it appart.

Back on the Mega Crusier...

"Initiating intergalactic hyperjump launch." An electronic voice said.

"Okay, time to panic again." Upgrade said as he tried to fix the problem.

"What did you do Darby?!" Vince spat.

"Whoa, hold up, I didn't do that, and I can't override it." Upgrade tried typing in codes to try to stop it.

The material that Upgrade was composed of began to come off of Slix's form. "You don't have as much control over me as you thought." Slix said as he ripped the nanobot goo off of him. Technorg grabbed the severed heads of one of the robot guards and tossed it at Slix, allowing Upgrade to resume controlling him.

The platform that Upgrade was on hovered down. He got off of it and hovered over to the others.

"We must get to the escape pods before we blast off to the next galaxy." Technorg said.

Upgrade pressed a button, teleporting him and the others to a room with many doors in it. Vince was already there and was trying to punch his way through.

Instead of laugh, Upgrade said: "Need a hand or six?" Four tentacles came out of his body and made their way to a terminal that made all the pod doors open. "All of you, take the escape pods back to your home planets." Upgrade told the various aliens. They launched the pods and left this god forsaken place. Technorg, Upgrade, and Vince were the only ones not to leave. "You too." Upgrade told Technorg, who just stood in front of the open door.

"No. My life belongs to you." The orange alien explained.

"And I'm giving it back." Upgrade pushed Technorg into the pod, and closed the door. "Go now."

The Omnitrix dial beeped. Upgrade detached himself from Slix before he reverted back to being Jack.

"Oh, man." Jack panicked. "Not yet."

Slix grabbed Jack with his metal claws. "You little human meat bag." Slix had been angered. "Nobody controls Six Vigma. Nobody."

Before Slix could do anything to Jack, he was stabbed through the chest by Vince.

"Vince? You saved my life?" Jack couldn't believe what Vince did.

"Sure. Why do you think I wasted all my time helping all these other losers? I just wanted the

pleasure of ending you myself." Vince glared at Jack with murderous intent.

Jack turned and tried to run, but Vince spat a glob of goo at him, sticking him to the wall.

"Your lapdog Technorg isn't here to help you this time. Neither is that ro-bitch Arcee." Vince said as he approached Jack, who got his arms to break through the goo. Jack tried to activate the Omnitrix in a panic. "Oh, and thanks for the tips on combining my powers." Vince formed his Diamondhead arm into a blade.

"Come on." Jack begged. "Please work, just this once."

"Don't bother trying to dial In another alien." VInce held his blade in front of Jack's face, allowing the human teen to see his reflection in its diamond-like surface. I know all your powers, inside and out."

The Omnitrix turned green and the tower popped up as Vince raised his blade and prepared to kill Jack. Jack slammed the Omnitrix on the wall, turning him into Cannonbolt.

The was a cloud of smoke and then a clink was heard. When the smoke cleared, Vince saw that his blade had hit the armor of an alien he didn't recognize.

"Oh, yeah? I don't think you've been Introduced to Cannonbolt." Cannonbolt rolled up and broke through the good that restrained him. He rolled over to the other side of the escape pod room and bounced off of it. Vince tried to blast the rolling alien with a fireball, but missed. Cannonbolt rolled under Vince, tripping him up. Cannonbolt then bounced off the various walls, attempting the hit Vince, but the Omnitrix mutant ducked.

Vince tried punching Cannonbolt. "Hold still, creep!" He yelled after several misses and no hits.

"New game." Cannonbolt said. "It's called dodgeball." Cannonbolt came flying at Vince, striking him in the face and knocking him down. He bounded off the wall and hit Vince again, and again, until Vince was tossed into the wall opposite of the one that Cannonbolt bounced off of. Cannonbolt however, had gotten himself tossed into one of the pods.

"Come on. Come on." Cannonbolt said as he tried to find the launch button while Vince tried to open up the door by ripping it open.

Vince's eyes became wide like saucers when a four fingered orange hand grabbed his head and pulled him away from the pod door.

The pod door opened and Cannonbolt saw who saved him. "Technorg, I thought you escaped."

"I told you, my life belongs to you."

"Looks like we're even." Cannonbolt said as the doors closed.

"Indeed." Technorg pressed the launch button on the control panel, sending the pod towards the nearest inhabited planet. Technorg them turned his attentions to Vince. "So I'm a lapdog, am I?"

The ship then left the galaxy, going to god knows where.

Back on Earth...

The pod that Jack was in landed gently on the road not far from the Rust Bucket. When the door open, Jack rolled out.

"Jack, are you alright?" June asked as she turned to see her son. She, Arcee, and Raf ran out of the field that they were looking through and saw Jack. "We were looking all over for you."

"Where've you been?" Arcee asked. "You've been gone for about eight hours."

"Long story. You guys?" Jack asked.

"We'll live." June replied.

"But what happened to Vince?" Asked Raf.

"Well..." Jack said with a mischievous smile on his face. "Let's just say he found somebody new to play with." Jack reffered to Technorg who most likely beating Vince five ways from friday. "Jack then walked over to the field and laid down on the grass. "You know what I want? A day with nobody either trying to take over the world or trying to kill me."

MECH base...

"Well, it took us three and a half weeks, but we finally recovered from that Hakaider incident." One of the scientists said.

"But was it really wise to upload the data about Hakaider into the subject's onboard memory?" Another scientist asked.

"Where else should I have put it? It's not like it'll be accessed by anyone."

"Yeah, what's the worst that can happen?"

"But still, when do we bring our leader back to the proper land of the living?"

"Tomorrow night."

Chapter end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Yes, I made the monster a Deathclaw, and yes, it may seem like it went out like a punk, but it's still alive. I'll explain what it is in a future chapter.


	27. The Human Factor

MECH base, night...

In the dead of night, a group of MECH operatives complete the final touches on the process to revive their leader, Silas.

A scientist connected a cable, then signaled to one of his colleagues to begin the revival process. He pressed a button on a control console, sending electricity into the once dead body of the Decepticon Breakdown. Energon drained into the body. Soon, a hand twitched, and the cybertronian was alive again, maybe. The heart rate monitor started to beep rapidly, getting faster and faster as Breakdown's body began to spark and smoke. It calmed down after a while. The members of MECH, who had believed that it would explode and shielded themselves looked at the body to find that it was moving in a manner similar to breathing. The optics ignited, and instead of the usual decepticon red, they were yellow. MECH had also replaced the one that they destroyed when they first captured this decepticon. Regardless, Silas was alive.

One of Silas' subordinates approached him. "Welcome back sir."

Silas looked at his Cybertronian limbs. "What have you done?"

"What you wanted us to do." The scientist said. "We successfully transferred your brain from you human body to Hakaider and back again. It was what was necessary to save you Silas."

Silas came to a realization. "I'm, one of them."

"In a sense. It's the logical evolution in MECH's experiments in biotech. Your brain, fused with the donor's nervous and skeletal system, but unlike your last mechanical body, you are in complete control."

"The perfect meld of man and machine, exquisite." Silas was please with the results.

"Yes, now you are closer to being a Cybertronian than Mr Darby is capable of."

"Thank you all for your dedication and a lifetime of service." Silas said as he detached from the supports that held the body up. "But I see now to seek the exclusive company, of titans." Silas deployed one of Breakdown's shoulder mounted cannons. He opened fired on all in the room, massacring them.

The next morning, on the highway...

Kevin Levin and Gwen Tennyson were driving down a long desert road. Gwen was just waking up, while Kevin was starting to drift off.

"Kevin, have you been driving all night?" Asked a concerned Gwen?

"Yeah? *Yawn* So?"

"Don't you know it's dangerous to drive while exhausted."

"If you're trying to convince me to let you drive the car while I take a nap in the back seat, the answer is no."

"Why? Is is because I'm a girl?"

"What? No."

"Okay, then why not?"

"You're related to Jack. And when he drove my car last, it got destroyed."

"Sorry I ask- what's that?" Gwen saw in the sideview mirror, an armored car drive down the road in their direction."

Kevin pressed a button on the steering wheel, which caused the mirror zoom in on the truck's licence plate, only to see that it's plate had the Decepticon logo on it. "Trouble. It's one of the 'cons. Gwen, find out which one it is."

Gwen's eyes glowed bright magenta. "It's not a cybertronian, it's a human. I think."

"You think? Gwen call up Prime, tell him we have something he'd want to know."

Later, at a military base...

Breakdown's vehicle mode drove up to a checkpoint at the base. One of the guards stepped out of the building and walked up to the driver's door on the vehicle, the window rolled down halfway, revealing the mangled form a Silas.

"Colonel Leland Bishop." Silas said. The guard must've been taking the piss, because he let him pass.

Autobot base...

"Bulkhead, you really shouldn't allow yourself to decline." Ratchet said to the green ex-wrecker.

"Yeah Bulk, you really gotta pull yourself out of this funk." Miko assured her friend.

"What's the use?"

"You need to regain your strength, the time will come-" Ratchet was interrupted by Bulkhead.

"When what? When all of you need an assist? Isn't that what Jack and the new guy are for?"

"Hey Bulkhead, I've been thinking," Smokescreen said. He approached Bulkhead holding the Apex Armor. "With your injury and all, you might wanna take advantage of the armor I snagged from Starscream. Instant muscle suit."

Bulkhead was insulted. "You think I need a crutch." Bulkhead got up and punched the Apex Armor out of Smokescreen's hands, causing it to hit a monitor, breaking it.

"Bulkhead! I needed that!" Ratchet was furious.

"Outta my way punk." Bulkhead exited the chamber, dragging his leg on the ground. He used his mace arm to shove Smokescreen to the side.

"He can walk!" Smokescreen, much like Deadpool, didn't know when to shut his trap. Bulkhead grabbed a ball made of compacted metal scraps and was beating it against his chest. "Looks like he's fit for duty to me."

"Shut up Smokescreen." The voice of Upgrade said. Jack's galvanic mechamorph form had merged with the damaged computer and formed his humanoid shape on the control panel.

Ratchet mumbled something and then turned his attention to Upgrade. "Thank you Jack, you certainly know how to make yourself useful."

"Don't mention it." Upgrade said.

"Uh hello!" Gwen shouted. "Back to what we called you guys about."

"Oh yeah." Upgrade extended one of his arms and climbed back up to the raised area that the humans used. "So what was it that you and Kev saw?" Jack asked Gwen, who was having a skype chat with Raf.

"We saw one of the decepticons."

"It was probably one of their scouts."

"It didn't look like the batmobile, and it wasn't flying and it wasn't Knockout." Kevin said.

"Hold up, how do you know what Doc Knock looks like?" Miko asked Kevin.

"I've sold a few things to him, mostly polish and paint."

"Moving on..." Upgrade said. "What kind of car was it?"

"Some sorta armored truck."

"Breakdown!" Miko shouted.

"Who, nevermind, regardless, I'm not even sure if it's even a Cybertronian." Gwen said.

"And how are you sure?"

"It's aura wasn't even close to being a cybertronian. Or a human. Might be some alien who's using Breakdown's body as a car."

Nemesis...

The Decepticon warship flew over the clouds to avoid detection.

On a screen was a map of the united states, which glitched out a bit by having Louisiana in Texas. Ignoring that error, the map showed a Breakdown as being in Colorado. Knockout and Soundwave took note of this.

"Strange." Knockout turned to face Megatron, who was reading over something. "Lord Megatron, it appears that Breakdown's signal has come back online, albeit corrupted."

"Investigate with caution. It may be an Autobot trick." Megatron said.

"I certainly hope not." Knockout was pleased to know that his buddy Breakdown might not be dead. "Breakdown might act the brute, but he's a maestro behind a rotary buffer."

At the military base...

The base had been left in ruins by an attack. Nobody was left alive.

A ground bridge opened. Knockout and four aerial drones stepped out of the vortex before it closed. Knockout looked around for anyone and then saw a hanger with a hole blasted through it. Some was coming out of the hole. What Knockout thought was Breakdown walked out of the hanger, dragging a large crate.

"Breakdown, where have you-" 'Breakdown' turned his head, allowing Knockout to see the changed optic colors. "Breakdown? What happened to you?"

"Therein lies a tail, which won't be nearly as interesting to Megatron as this." Silas held up the case that he trashed the whole base for. "So, take me to your leader."

Later, Autobot base...

Fowler was explaining to the Autobots what happened at the base. "At sixteen thirty hours, a satellite was stolen from a high security military vault." Explained Fowler. "Surveillance shows the Decepticon known as Breakdown at the scene."

"Haven't seen him in a while." Bulkhead was glad that his old sparring partner was back.

Fowler continued. "It looks like Breakdown entered the base in vehicle mode with someone behind the wheel."

"A decepticon paired with a human?" Ratchet thought that this was crazy.

"Aren't they big on the 'humans are inferior' idea?" Asked Gwen.

"That they are, but as for the human that Breakdown was with, I have a good hunch as to who. Max, if you would." Fowler pressed a button on a keyboard and a video feed of Jack and Gwen's grandfather Max Tennyson appeared on screen.

"Grandpa?" Gwen and Jack both shouted.

"Hey kids."

"What're you doing helping Fowler with this?" Jack asked his grandfather.

"Ever since your battle with Vilgax, Fowler's supervisors got me to handle anything alien, minus the 'bots of course." Max then continued where Fowler left off. "Now the stolen satellite was part of project Damocles, created by you know who."

"Silas." Optimus answered.

"It seems the former Colonel Bishop wanted it back."

Bumblebee bleeped something, which Arcee responded to.

"Same here, I thought Silas was paste, until he showed up a few weeks ago as Hakaider." Arcee shivered when she said that name.

"Ha-what-er?" Max didn't know what Arcee was talking about.

"H-a-k-a-i-d-e-r, an android that has a human's brain in it, very tough to beat. Heck, I'm not even sure if Jiro and I even dented it." Jack said. "And before you ask, Jiro is the alias of Kikaider."

Raf typed up Hakaider and brought a picture of the robot that mutilated Arcee on his laptop. "Here it is." He showed Max the image.

After looking over the image, Max said: "So we all thought we saw the last of Silas at separate occasions. But regardless, he's back."

"Mister Tennyson, even if he was still alive and had his mind in his own body, are you trying to imply that Silas has allied MECH, with the Decepticons." Ratchet thought that this was a rather airheaded thought. "I highly doubt that Megatron would entertain such an idea."

"But why not?" Jack suggested. "The human-bot alliance works for us."

"Most of the time." Arcee agreed.

Bumblebee brought up the red energon incident.

"Yes, but Starscream still lost in the end." Optimus said.

"But even if Megatron were to get help from a human, wouldn't it make more sense to team up with someone who has more to offer, like Freakimo."

"The clown? Didn't he explode?" Raf said.

"No, the animal guy, the one who has a grudge against Jack."

"Oh, Animo."

Nemesis...

Megatron had just seen the being before him and was disgusted by it.

"Knockout, what is this abomination?" Megatron was ready to end something. "And why have you brought it here?"

"I am Cylas." Silas, or Cylas explained. "Cybernetic life augmented by symbiosis. I come with a proposition."

"This is the human who dissected Breakdown." Knockout was furious. He turned his hand into a buzzsaw. "Please my liege allow me to return the favor."

Megatron contemplated letting Knockout waste Cylas.

"I propose you not overlook the one asset that provides Optimus Prime an advantage, at least on this world."

"The Omnitrix?" Megatron highly doubted that Cylas had the Omnitrix

"Yes, what, no. The other one."

"And that would be..."

"The human factor." Cylas grinned.

"Look around you, Cylas." Megatron hissed. "I command an army from a mighty warship. What could a human possibly offer?"

"I am no ordinary human." Cylas said. Soundwave recorded that sentence for future use. "And this is no ordinary weapon." Cylas held out the case that he had brought.

Autobot base...

"Back to what Silas stole," Gwen said. "this Project Damocles, since you seem to know so much about it, mind telling us what it is grandpa?"

"Project Damocles is a particle beam cannon so powerful, it could slice up the pentagon like a birthday cake, or give everyone on MT Rushmore a mohawk." Max explained as a presentation was displayed on a screen behind him. "All from a satellite in orbit. It's the work of a madman. And in Megatron's hands..."

Back on the Nemesis...

"...a threat to anyone, anywhere on the planet."

Cylas saw that Megatron like his gift and continued explaining. "With pinpoint accuracy at the flick of a switch."

Megatron had been around long enough to know that anything this good came at a price. "And what is it that you wish for in return?"

"Merely a place at the table."

Back at the base...

Max held an open folder in his hands. "Now the 'cons might have the satellite, but it's as useless as a fire extinguisher on Pyros without the interface code. The only known existing copy is stored in the secure servers at the headquarters in colorado."

"We must keep the code out of decepticon hands at all cost." Optimus said. He walked out of the room and prepared for battle.

"It's roll time!" Bulkhead said after punching his fists together. Bulkhead turned to follow Optimus, but Ratchet would have none of this.

"Ep ep ep! I have not yet cleared you for active duty, nor are you ready to roll." Ratchet said, earning a groan from Bulkhead.

Later, at the location of the code...

The base's personnel were leaving the base as quickly as they could. Their haste was due to orders from Fowler. "All personnel are ordered to evacuate base immediately, we have a level five radiation leak." However, the message was from soundwave, who was imitating Fowler's voice. "Repeat, evacuate immediately."

Soundwave entered one of the computer rooms and attached one of his tentacles to a keyboard, getting him into the system. Soundwave began downloading the code, but found that it would take a while due to both the code's length and the safeguards put in.

A ground bridge opened in a field of satellite dishes that was outside the building that Soundwave was in. Arcee, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, and Optimus ran out of the vortex before it closed. Seconds later, red laser blasts came in their direction. The Autobots split up and took cover behind some boulders. Their attackers were Vehicons who were standing in a line and facing in the general direction of the Autobots.

"The decepticons have preceded us." Optimus said as he assessed the situation while trying not to get his head shot off. "We must secure the command center." Optimus deployed his blaster and charged at the Vehicons. The others followed suit.

In the Nemesis...

From surveillance from Laserbeak, Megatron was able to see the Autobots charge at his soldiers. "The Autobots have arrived." Megatron stated.

"Megatron relax." Cylas said casually. This earned the less than human villain a snarl from the Decepticon warlord. "Lord Megatron." Cylas may've been used to proving himself to his former Forever Knight superiors, but Megatron was a completely different experience. "Soundwave may need to download the code in order to operate Damocles from here on you warship," He walked over to a control console. "but while jacked into the mainframe, Damocles is his to command." He turned and pressed a button, launching the grey satellite that had orange solar panels.

Back with Soundwave...

"Soundwave..." Megatron said to his communications officer over the comm link. "prepare to perform beta test." The silent spy nodded in response. Another of Soundwave's tentacles attached to a keyboard, allowing him to target an area outside the compound he was in." The satellite charged up its beam.

Outside...

As the Autobots charged, Smokescreen transformed and drove at the Vehicons. He hit the brakes, spinning while in vehicle mode, knocking over one of the Vehicons. He then transformed and blasted at one of the 'cons, then another. He was then tackled by one that caught him off guard, but Smokescreen managed to recover and was on top of the Vehicon punching it.

The satellite fired its orange beam at it's target. In less than fifteen seconds, it was in view of those on the ground.

Smokescreen looked up to see the approaching orange death and managed to get away from the descending beam and made it away with less than a second to spare.

The Vehicon was not so lucky. It was fried to a crisp.

The Nemesis...

Megatron had seen what Damocles had done to the Vehicon and liked what he saw. "Promising."

Back with the Autobots...

"Fall back!" Optimus ordered as the beam came towards him this time. He and the others ran from the beam. "Ratchet, we require backup." Optimus radioed to base.

Back at base...

"Ratchet, we require backup." Optimus said.

"I'm there." Bulkhead wanted to join the fight.

"Ep! Ep! Ep!" Ratchet stopped Bulkhead.

"Can you remotely disable project Damocles under Max Tennyson's advisement.?" Optimus asked.

"On a human based computer network, one that Soundwave is most likely monitoring?"

"What's so bad about hacking into the system?" Jack asked.

"Jack, project Damocles was made to be hack proof. Any time access to the satellite was made from outside the base, a tracking signal is sent out that would alert us to the location of the hackers." Max explained. "Doing what Optimus has in mind would allow Soundwave to target the base."

"Then let's do it somewhere else." Jack suggested.

"Where do you have in mind?" Gwen asked.

"We could do it from the Rust Bucket."

"Jack, my RV's right here." Max said.

"No, not yours grandpa, my mom's. She's in Jasper, Texas, we could go there."

Later, Jasper, Texas, Rust Bucket...

June was watching some TV while wearing a nightgown. A ground bridge opened in the Rust Bucket behind her.

"What're you doing here?!" June was frustrated. "Today was my day to be away from all this." She said angrily as Miko, Raf, Gwen, and Jack stepped out.

"That's no way to greet your father. I thought I raised you better than that." Max said as he stepped out.

"Hey dad, okay, what's going on." She saw the folder in her dad's hands. "It's serious, isn't it."

"You have no idea." Gwen replied. "We need a safe place so that Raf can hack into a secure server and stop the 'cons from using an orbital superweapon to destroy Optimus, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Smokescreen."

Back at the military compound...

The Autobots stood merely a few yards from where the Damocles satellite's beam stopped firing.

Optimus, having been told what Raf is going to try to do, spoke. "Autobots, we must draw its fire to distract from Rafael's efforts."

The beam came down right where it had stopped.

"Somehow, I doubt that'll be a problem." Arcee said before she and the others ran from the beam. They transformed and drove away from the orange death.

Back at the Autobot base...

Bulkhead was pacing the room back and forth. He stopped and faced Ratchet. "Ratchet, you gotta send me in." Bulkhead said.

"So you can be an even easier target?!" Ratchet didn't like Bulkhead's lack of patience. "You have yet to regain your full range of motion."

Bulkhead formed fists with his hands. "But Breakdown's back!" Bulkhead wanted a rematch with his Decepticon equal. "He's my arch enemy!" Bulkhead remembered that the humans were helping out too. "Come on! Even the kids are in on the action!"

Ratchet sighed. "Very well. You are cleared for duty."

"Yeah!" Bulkhead gladly proclaimed.

Ratchet giving into Bulkhead came with a price. "A duty of my choosing."

In the Rust Bucket...

Raf had opened up the program Jack's grandfather had given him. "I'm in, but I can't reach the targeting systems. Too many fire wall, and some of them are way too complex for me to get by. The 'cons must've-"

"Galvan antihack coding, impossible to decode. The only way to get by it is by using the computer that the program was installed on."

"And why is alien tech in one of Silas' creations?" June asked.

"He didn't put it there. When the plumbers found out about project damocles, we put up safeguards so that no one on the outside has this kind of power. We never considered the idea of someone hacking it from the base directly. Short sighted, yes, but we all make mistakes." Max explained. "But that doesn't change the fact that we need to stop the 'cons from making it off with the satellite's interface code, 'cause they'll use damocles to light up the sky 24/7."

"Let'em have the code, it won't do them any good without the satellite."

No one in the room besides Raf knew how to respond. "I can't say I follow you." Max scratched his head in confusion.

"Yeah, mind explaining what you meant for those in here who don't speak Bumblebee?" Asked Gwen.

Raf explained. "All satellites have maneuvering thrusters so they can adjust their orbit, if I can break into the navigation subroutine, I can bring the whole satellite down."

"Translation, Raf's going to do to Damocles what Jack does to every rocket he builds in Kerbal Space Program." Miko joked at Jack's expense.

Little did they know that a third party was hacking into the very same systems that Raf was trying to access. However, this third party was doing it more covertly.

Nemesis...

The computer console was showing that someone was trying to access the satellite. It showed that the breach was coming from Texas.

"An intruder in the system." Megatron was fumed. "He grabbed Cylas and tossed him to the side as he approached the screen. "Soundwave, we have a breach."

"Jasper Texas? But I was under the impression that the Autobots' human allies were based in Alamo Nevada."

"If you had updated your knowledge on them, you would've known that the Autobots' pets have been traveling quite a bit over the past two months, I believe it is what human refer to as 'summer vacation'."

"Then it must be the Autobots' human allies." Cylas said.

"Then perhaps you should attend to the matter then." Megatron hissed at Cylas.

"Maybe one of your subordinates could-" Cylas didn't want a repeat of the defeat he faced against Humungousaur, but Megatron had other ideas.

"Now!" Megatron ordered.

At the military compound...

Arcee sped up to avoid the beam. She managed to get away before it had to recharge and stop firing.

Smokescreen stopped with the front end of his vehicle mode facing the building. He said: "Clear shot, I'm going in!" Smokescreen put the pedal to the metal and raced towards the building. The beam came down and struck the ground in a large circle whose perimeter was inches from Smokescreen. The force of the blast caused him to spin out of control. "Scratch that."

Back at the Rust Bucket...

While Raf was trying to hack into the satellite, the Vehicle mode of Cylas turned a corner and drove down the road until he came to the empty parking lot that the Rust Bucket was parked in. He slammed on the brakes and came to a stop. Cylas deployed the blaster that would be on his robot mode's shoulder normally. He aimed it at the Rust Bucket. "Good night hacker." He said as he took aim. Through the cannon's scope, he could see Jack with his back to the window. Jack turned and looked in his direction, but Cylas took no notice of that. He was about to fire a missile at them, but an SUV came around the corner, drove right at Cylus' vehicle mode and slammed into him.

Inside the Rust Bucket...

Jack turned to see if anyone was spying on them. All he saw was an empty parking lot and a single armored truck in the road. That got him suspicious. He stood up from where he sat and quietly exited the RV, making sure to keep out of view of the SUV. Jack saw Bulkhead's vehicle form bolt down the road and ram into the armored truck, flipping it over and pushing it down the road. Jack activated the Omnitrix and thought for a moment. He'd never fought Breakdown before, and he didn't have Humungousaur anymore, and if MECH was working with the 'cons, then Hakaider might be nearby, so Four Arms was out, as was Stinkfly and Jackwolf, Grey Matter was too small, Ripjaws would dry out, Cannonbolt was too unwieldy, so, leaving only Wildvine, Diamondhead, the Mummy, Upgrade, Wildmutt, Heatblast, and XLR8 left. "Man, today would be a great day for a new alien." Jack said to himself as he ran down the street after Bulkhead and 'Breakdown'. He slammed down the Dial on XLR8. Jack was now Heatblast.

With Bulkhead...

"Good call on curbside duty Ratch." Thanked Bulkhead as he pushed 'Breakdown' down the street, over the sidewalk, and into a drainage ditch. Bulkhead pushed the armored truck through a concrete barrier with enough force to send the truck a good thirty in front of Bulkhead. Both Bulkhead and the SUV transformed, and almost instantly, Bulkhead knew something wasn't right, he just thought it was nothing. "Been itchin' to trade paint with you again." Bulkhead said as he dragged his knee on the ground. "Where've ya been Breakdown?" The Wreck was unprepared for whose voice he heard next.

"Be patient, I'm about to send you there." Bulkhead knew the voice, he just couldn't remember the name.

"You're not Breakdown." Bulkhead knew that voice was that of Silas.

"But you're Bulkhead, and this is the last time you'll interfere with my operations." That last word set off alarms in Bulkhead's head.

Bulkhead's optics were wide. "Silas."

"In the Cybertronian flesh." Cylas said. He prepared his hammer and screamed a battle cry as he charged at Bulkhead. Bulkhead deployed his mace tried to do the same, but found that his decreased mobility lessened his chances of victory. His mace was caught by Cylas, who managed to toss Bulkhead's arm to the side. He struck Bulkhead with his hammer trice, with the third hit sending the massive Autobot back. Cylas tried to deliver a killing blow, but Bulkhead got out of the way, causing Cylas to slam his hammer into the concrete. Bulkhead delivered a left hook to Cylas, causing the body jacking terrorist to stumble back. Bulkhead tried to slam his mace into Cylas, but his mace arm was caught by Cylas, who used it to smack the Wrecker's face. Bulkhead was tossed to the concrete wall of the drainage ditch. He stood on his hands and knees and looked up at Cylas who was inviting him to attack. Bulkhead was got up and was about to charge at Cylas, but a stream of fire struck Cylas. Bulkhead looked up to see Heatblast hovering mid air like the human torch. The Pyronite landed in front of Bulkhead.

"Jack? What're you doing here?"

"Saw Breakdown and thought 'might as a well help out'."

"Ah, Mr Darby, I'm so glad you could show up."

"Wait, that voice! Silas!" Heatblast's flames got hotter, melting the concrete he stood on. "After what you did to Arcee, I've been waiting to pay you back." Heatblast charged up a fire ball and flung it at Cylas. Cylas dodged it and fired at Heatblast. The Pyronite dodged as many of the shots as he could, and shot some fireballs at Cylas.

Autobot base...

"Bulkhead do you read! Bulkhead." Ratchet tried to contact Bulkhead, but got static. After a few moments he got a response.

"I'm here, and so is Jack." Came Bulkhead's reply. "He's using one of his alien forms to fight Silas. Uhg, that's gotta hurt."

"You think?" Heatblast yelled, his voice able to be picked up by Bulkhead's communicator.

At the military compound...

Soundwave continued to download the codes, all while looking for the source of the infiltration.

Outside, the Autobots continued to fight the Vehicons. Optimus shot two of them as he tried to get close to the building, but the damocles beam came down and struck the ground right in front of him, halting his advance.

"Optimus," Ratchet said over the radio. "Bulkhead and Jack have engaged Silas and need immediate back up."

The Rust Bucket...

"Uhg! Where'd they hide the substring?" Raf was working as fast as he could to hack into the satellite.

In the drainage ditch...

Jack was lying in a depression that was made when Heatblast fell on the ground. Bulkhead had gotten back up and was fighting Cylas.

Bulkhead took a swing at Cylas, but his mace missed. "Reaction time is slow." Bulkhead swung his nearly limp arm at Silas. "You're favoring your right side." He said as Bulkhead limped forward. "Legs are weak." Bulkhead raised his right arm to strike Cylas, but as he brought his mace down to strike, Cylas blocked it with his hammer and then kicked Bulkhead's legs out from under him. Before Bulkhead fell, his face was struck with Cylas' hammer, sending him back. "Whereas Mr Darby's weakness was emotional, yours is physical."

"What're you trying to say Colonel Breakdown?" Jack asked.

"That you're weak, every last one of you."

Bulkhead had hoped that Jack would get his second wind, but glanced over and saw him fiddling around with the Omnitrix. He had to do this himself. "I'll show you weak." Bulkhead charge, or at least did as best as he could. Cylas managed to get up and struck Bulkhead's back when he was behind him. Cylas struck his back with his hammer, sending the Wrecker sliding on the concrete. Silas then prepared to finish what he started.

"In short, you should've stayed in bed Autobot." Cylas raised his hammer arm and prepared to strike down Bulkhead. However, the sound that accompanied a Cybertronian changing forms was heard. Smokescreen side kicked Cylas away from Bulkhead.

"Assist, it's what the new guys are for." Smokescreen helped Bulkhead up. They turned to see that Cylas had got back up.

"One new guy to another..." Cylas said as he cracked his neck. He redeployed his hammer. "This is your final day on the job." He charged at the two Autobots, but a wall of crystal that was as tall as Cylas got between him and Smokescreen and Bulkhead. "What?! How?!"

"Yeah, well Smokescreen, from one alien to another, it's hero time!" Diamondhead said as he ran over to join Smokescreen and Bulkhead. Diamondhead formed his fist into an axe and a blade.

Military base...

Soundwave had found what the infiltrators had been trying to access, he transmitted the finding to Megatron.

The Nemesis...

Megatron saw what Soundwave found and knew immediately what they were trying to do. "They're attempting to disable the satellite." Megatron slammed his fist against the computer. "Cylas, how difficult is it to squash a human child?" Megatron then replayed the news clips of Jack as Heatblast and Stinkfly. "Okay, it can be difficult, but how hard can it be to crush this one?" Megatron contacted the former leader of MECH. "Cylas!" He shouted.

At the military base...

Soundwave had finished downloading the codes. He sent a silent message to Megatron. "We have the codes?" Megatron questioned. Soundwave sent megatron a message that said yes. "Then target the intruder and destroy him!" Megatron ordered.

Outside, the beam from Damocles was following Bumblebee and was about to catch up, but the beam went in the opposite direction.

"This is our opportunity!" Optimus said. "Autobots, storm the command center!" Optimus, Arcee, and Bumblebee ran towards the building,

The Rust Bucket...

"I'm almost there." Raf said as he continued to type in codes. The targeting reticle started to move away from the Autobots.

"Raf, rock on!" Miko cheered. "It's moving!"

"Uh, that isn't me."

Max, who had been on edge this whole time spoke up. "Come again?"

Up in space, the satellite's RCS thrusters released several quick bursts that moved is so that it could target the Rust Bucket. It charged up its beam and prepared to fire.

At the military base...

As the Autobots approached the base, they fired at the Vehicons guarding it. None of them stopped to think why it suddenly got way too easy.

The Rust Bucket...

"Uh guys, that's Jasper." June said when she saw that the satellite was moving its targeting reticle. It stopped when it got to an RV.

"Raf, do something!" Gwen shouted as she panicked.

"Full thruster burn!" Raf said as he typed a command in. The screen went black.

"What happened?!" Max shouted.

"I don't know! Something must've locked me out."

Up in space, the satellite had charged up the beam, but when Raf tried to get it to move, the beam shut off and the satellite moved, The RCS thrusters moved it so that it was orbiting above the desert in a different part of the country. It positioned itself over the wasteland and stayed there, and there was nothing anyone, not even Soundwave, could do to correct the problem, he couldn't even access the laser cannon.

On the Nemesis...

"What?" Megatron was having a hard time reasoning why the satellite was targeting a barren wasteland. "Soundwave! What is the meaning of this?!" Megatron shouted through the comm line.

Text appeared on the screen. It said. "Control over Damocles satellite lost. Connection to Damocles disabled."

The Rust Bucket...

"Uh, anyone else think it was really strange how the satellite moved itself?" Gwen asked, knowing that something weird is going on.

"Yeah, that was so, sudden." Max said. "But the weapon is out of Megatron's hands, that's all that matters."

"But dad, if somebody, anybody finds the satellite, it could mean there's going to be trouble." June cautiously said. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew it was important.

Suddenly, Raf's computer came back on. But all it showed was a black screen with the NASA logo on it.

"Raf, is this normal?" Gwen asked.

"No, my background is just blue." Raf answered.

"Something tells me NASA is part of this." Max reasoned. "I'll have Prime bridge me to there tomorrow."

"Take Jack and Gwen with you." June requested.

"Aunt June, not that I don't like spending time with Jack, but why do you want me to go with him and grandpa Max to NASA?"

June's response was: "You two hardly spend any time together."

"I guess you're right." Gwen thought that little tidbit over. "We've only seen each other twice this year, and before that we were both ten when we last saw each other."

"And plus, it'd be great to show you kids my old stomping grounds. And just in time for my sixty fourth birthday."

'Oh crud!' Gwen shouted in her head. 'His birthday's in a few days. Thank god Kevin and I got everything ready, all Jack has to do is get the cake. I mean it's not like he didn't get my email about getting a cake. Right? Right?!'

At the military base...

Bumblebee blasted a Vehicon with his dual double barreled laser blasters. The Autobots ran through the rather tall hallways. Optimus kicked down a door that got in their way. The Autobots entered the control room, expecting to find Soundwave. They aimed their guns in front of them, but then pointed them at a hole in the ceiling, then retracted them when they heard a jet take off.

At the Drainage basin in Jasper Texas...

Bulkhead delivered two uppercuts to Cylas' torso, the second one knocked him over. Diamondhead slammed his fist in the ground and a pillar a crystal beneath him and tossed Cylas into the air. He landed facing Smokescreen, with a fifteen meter gap between them. Smokescreen jumped and drop sidekicked him, the force of the kick, sending him over Diamondhead and Bulkhead, he bounced a bit before stopping. The Petrosapien then glared at Cylas and spikes of crystal grew out of the ground in front of Diamondhead's feet and more grew out of the ground, getting closer and closer to Cylas. Cylas rolled to avoid being impaled.

"Cylas, return to base at once." Megatron calmly ordered. Cylas deployed his blaster and fired a missile. Bulkhead and Smokescreen got out of the way, but Diamondhead took it head on and was unharmed by the detonation.

A ground bridge opened and Cylas ran into it. When the portal closed, the Omnitrix beeped, returning Diamondhead to normal.

Jack got a text message from Gwen saying: 'We're okay. The cons don't have the satellite anymore.'

"Guess somebody just got their new toy taken away." Jack said.

"Whaddya mean?" Bulkhead asked.

"I don't know, I just got a text from Gwen." Replied Jack.

"You did good Smokey." Bulkhead congratulated. He and the Elite Guard member fist bumped.

"Thanks, and for the record, I studied every one of the Wreckers' battles."

"I guess there's hope for you yet, newbie."

Nemesis...

Cylas was standing before Megatron in the control room.

"Cylas, you have earned your place at the table." Megatron said.

Cylas had thought he had earned his place amongst the Decepticons. "Lord Megatron, I am truly honored."

"Knockout's dissection table."

Cylas turned to see Knockout holding his electric prod. "Breakdown would be tickled." Knockout said with a grin on his face.

"No lord Megatron! Why?!" Cylas stumbled back in fear.

"Because Damocles was the best you had to offer, and since it can no longer be activated, much less controlled, the human factor did as you said tip the scales, in the favor of my enemies." Megatron explained. Soundwave displayed an image that he had taken about eight months prior during an event known as 'Darkness Rising'.

Knockout stabbed Cylas in the back with his electric prod, paralyzing him.

"He will be a fascinating case for study." Megatron said as he, Soundwave and Knockout approached Cylas and looked down on his stunned form.

"I will will leave no fiber, or fiber optic unexamined." Knockout bent down and tapped the optic the MECH installed in place of the one that they broke.

Two vehicons dragged Cylas off.

"No!" Cylas didn't want it to end like this. "No! No! Megatron!" Cylas begged. "I'm here to serve you!" For the first time in his life, Cylas showed true fear. "No! No! No! Nooooooooo!"

Chapter end.


	28. Ghostfreak's Master Plan part 1

Digby Dairy, Nighttime...

The icecream factory where a few weeks ago, an alien mummy along with several pieces of corrodium was buried still had the same guard that his employers deemed fit to still work despite sleeping on the job and waking up in nothing but his boxers.

An alarm went off, waking him up and causing him to stumble in the chair he was leaning back in. He stood up and grabbed his flashlight and went into the factory.

He went to the basement and found that the alarms went off for a rather minor reason. "Probably some teens looking for free samples." He reasoned.

The alarm stopped suddenly when a black clawed hand ripped off the bell.

The sound of glass breaking was heard. The guard turned to see a broken light.

The intruder wasn't a group of teens, this time. No, it was the Yenaldooshi, who sniffed the floor to try to pick up the scent. He clawed the lock off a door and tore the steel door off its hinges. He proceeded down the stairs and burst open another door. It came to the room where the Mummy was buried. It jumped over the railing, sniffed the ground and began digging. It ripped up the new concrete, undoing the work Upgrade did to hide the evidence. The Yenaldooshi found a sand colored container that had what it came for. It moved the container out of the hole it dug and placed it up against a wall. the Yenaldooshi inhaled deeply. It opened its jaws and then unleashed its sonic roar. Roar attracted the attention of the guard, which would be of little consequence to them. The concrete that contained the mummy cracked, and the alien monster was free.

A flashlight shone on them. "Alright kiddies, snacktime's over." The guard then saw that these probably weren't kids."Woah."

Several bolts of dark purple lightning came out of nowhere and hit in front of the two monsters. The air around them rippled and in a flash of light, they were gone.

Somewhere in Florida...

Gwen, who was reading something about magic on her computer, sat in the seat next to Max, who was driving the Rust Bucket II down the highway, which went over a bay.

Jack was lying on the couch, listening to the radio, but he wish his grandpa had picked a different station. It was on that had traffic alerts.

"And make sure to be on the lookout on state highway A-1-A for a prison bus reportedly taken over by the inmates."

"Grandpa, mind if I put something else on?" Jack asked as he sat up from the couch.

"Sorry Jack, but the radio's stuck on this station."

Gwen thought that this was kinda funny. "So your RV has all this high tech gear, but it has a busted radio? Two words grandpa, epic fail."

"Don't rub it in, it's hard to find the parts."

"Why, just go to any radio sha- ha ha ha!" Jack couldn't say that sentence with a straight face.

"The parts are custom made, from koros, and not only that, but they'd cost me either an arm or a leg."

"Yeah, so, anyone else think that the report about the hijacked prison bus might be a problem?" Gwen asked.

Right as she said that, the Rust Bucket 2 was hit by something, it was the bus that had been described in the radio broadcast. It ground up against the side of the truck when it went along the side. Jack stumbled over.

"Well, speak of the devil, and he shall appear." Jack activated the omnitrix and prepared to transform. "It's hero ti-" Jack was interrupted by his grandpa.

"Jack, this time we need to think of a plan before you go charging off."

"Grandpa's right, plus your mom's still mad about what happened last night." Gwen added.

"Okay, here's the plan." Jack said as he cycled through his aliens. "You guys sit back and let me handle this."

"Jack, Gwen and I might not be Autobots, but we still can help."

Jack found the alien he wanted to turn into, Upgrade, and slammed down the dial. "That's a good point, but I think I can handle a bunch of non-decepticon cons." Jack was transformed into Stinkfly. "Aw man!" Stinkfly was frustrated. "Well, live and let live." Stinkfly moved over to the door and flew out of the Rust Bucket 2.

"Jack!" Max tried to get Jack to think this through, but it was too late for that. "At least close the door!"

In the prison bus, the ornage jumpsuited convicts had handcuffed the guards and the driver to the back seats and gagged them.

"Next stop, freedom!"

"Nice jumpsuits, but blue's more my color." Stinkfly said. "And between you and me, you're going right back to jail."

"Wait, who said that? Wait, was hat is this a race thing?" The convict that was driving, who was an african american said.

"What? No." Stinkfly landed at the window. "All I'm saying is that nobody's getting out of jail free when this fly's on patrol."

"Aw man, you reak." The driver was repulsed by the smell of Stinkfly's breath. "And I thought the prision food smelled gross." The driver covered his nose, allow Stinkfly to grab onto the wheel. He and the guard fought over who had control over the steering wheel. He coughed as his eyes started to water. "What is that thing?"

"History." Another one of the convicts said. He had a length of chain that he had found. He walked to the front of the bus and spun it around. He tossed it at Stinkfly, who got out of the way to dodge it.

The Rust Bucket 2 bashed the bus, denting the bodywork of Max's RV. He slowed down a bit and got behind the bus.

"Now you see me!" Stinkfly flew in front of the bus. He sprayed goo at the bus' windshield through his eyes stalks. Wait what? "Now you don't" The Lepidopteran smiled, but that smile turned into a frown when he saw that the bus had windshield wipers.

The Rust Bucket got alongside the bus. The door to the prison bus opened and three of the orange jumpsuited convicts climbed up onto the roof. Two of them had police batons and one had a chain.

Stinkfly flew at the two convicts that had police batons, knocking them over, but they didn't fall off the bus.

The bus smashed against the side of the Rust Bucket, causing the RV to hit the side of the bridge that they were on.

Max pressed a red button, causing a bunch of rectangular panels to rotate, revealing a that underneath they were grey and had red light on them.

Stinkfly's tail got caught by the chain. The guy that was holding onto it yanked the chain in an effort to bring stinkfly down.

Gwen opened up one of the windows and looked up at a struggling Stinkfly. "You don't have to do this all by yourself you know!" She shouted.

"Hey, when you got the moves, use them." Stinkfly flew around the three felons, wrapping them up with the chain. He got the chain untied from his bladed tail and flew in front of the bus. He spat goo a the wheels, but he did this at the exact wrong moment, as Max pressed a button on the dashboard that fired a red beam out of the side of the Rust bucket, which would've hit the engine, if the bus hadn't come to a sudden stop and spun spun around wildly, causing the Rust Bucket to almost tip over, however, while the Rust Bucket merely made a 180 degree turn and ended up in the lane that the bus was in, but the that would've been all of the bus hadn't hit the Rust Bucket again, causing it to spin more, the red beam still firing.

Stinkfly flew into the bus and got in an attack pose. When he got close, one of the convicts handcuffed him to a pole that was part of a chain link divider that separated the guards and the inmates.

"Jesus, they sure got some ugly bugs down here." The prisoner insulted.

"Have you looked in the mirror lately buddy?" Stinkfly retorted.

The rust Bucket somehow got in front of the bus. Max hit the breaks, causing the RV to stop, but not before cutting a section of the bridge, causing it to fall into the water. Max pressed the fire button again, stopping this part of the current madness. The bus drove around the Rust Bucket and into the bay. Max pressed another button and a panel on the front of the Rust Bucket unfolded and a grappling hook was fired at the bus. The grappling hook latched onto the bus and caught it, causing several of the convicts to go through the windshield and into the bay, as did the ones who were on top of the bus. The chain that tied them up fell off, allowing them to get away.

"Swim for it!" One of them shouted.

"I don't think so." Gwen, who had gotten out of the Rust Bucket along with Max, said. "Aquata Risa Spackwata." She chanted. Jets of water rose the six convicts out of the water.

"I meant to do that." Gwen said as he grandfather looked at what just unfolded before his eyes as he tried to comprehend what happened.

Later...

Jack sat in the booth of the table in the Rust Bucket while Gwen sat across from him. She was eating some pretzels while Jack stretched from where he sat. Max was watching a news report on the TV.

"Hey Gwen, could I have some of those?" Jack asked.

"Sorry, these are for team players only." Gwen refused to share with Jack. "Get your own pretzels dweeb."

"Dweeb? Seriously? Isn't that the insult we reserve for Ben?" Jack practically laughed at what Gwen said. "And besides, we did work as a team, I stopped the bus, and you guys were on clean up, now, it's not like I'm asking much, so could I-" Gwen tossed the bag of pretzels at Jack. "Thanks."

"Shh! Hey, I'm trying to listen." Max said. He pressed play on the news report he was watching.

The reporter was in the middle of high winds at a rocket launch site. There was a thunder storm brewing. "Today's launch of the Novan spacecraft has been delayed by a freak electrical storm." The reporter said. "I've covered bad weather from the four corners of the world, and I've only seen something like this purple lightning once before."

"But I have." Jack said. "Mind if I explain since you two weren't there?"

"June told me about this." Max said.

"And we were all there when the world almost ended. But when were the other times?" Gwen said.

"The first time was the Unicron incident, and FGI, Unicron is the cybertronian devil." Jack said. "Then in the desert with the werewolf."

"And on that farm with the mummy." Arcee, who was calling Jack said. Jack accidently put her on speaker phone.

"Arcee? Why'd you call?" Gwen asked.

"Why else, the purple lightning, and right now, I'm in the middle of trying to convince Optimus not to not investigate it." Arcee said.

"And is it working?"

"Yes." Optimus said over the phone. "Max, although normally I would not require humans to do something such as this, however, it has come to my attention that you possess a better chance of learning more about this than we are capable of."

"Don't worry Prime, we're heading over there." Max grabbed Jack's phone and hung it up. "Next stop, Cape Canaveral."

Cape Canaveral...

In a large lecture hall, a man was presenting his idea to his superiors.

"And my redesign of the propellant tanks will increase the velocity on the twin solid rocket boosters, allowing for increased high altitude efficiency." A man who wore a white lab coat explained as a slideshow was projected behind him. "The changes are already being implemented."

"Very impressive Doctor Victor." One of the higher ups said. "But since you're new here, you should know that once a launch is scrubbed, protocol dictates that a thorough review-"

"Who are you to question my work?" Doctor Victor asked as he approached the man who frustrated him.

"Well, I am the fly director on this mission." He kept his cool.

The doctor realized his folly. "Yes, of course." He exited the lecture hall through a pair of doors.

"Not exactly Mr Personality, but he is brilliant. I can see why you hired him." Another of the supervisors said.

"I thought you hired him."

Outside the space center...

"Okay, I go in a XLR8, no, Wildvine, and then we'll-"

"Hold your horses Jack." Max said with a grin on his face. "You weren't there when I said it, but I used to work here. In fact, I think I might know someone who can get us in there a lot easier."

"Really? Who?" Gwen asked.

"Eh, just an old friend."

Inside...

Max, Jack, and Gwen entered the space center. They walked down a hallway through a mini museum of astronaut stuff like suits, their gear and what not.

"Max Tennyson? What's it been? Forty years?" A man wearing a black suit and tie said as he walked up to Jack's grandfather. Max and this guy shook hands. His name badge said Frank Shueman

"Give or take." Max replied.

"Whatever happened to you?" Frank asked. "One day you were here, the next you were gone." The red haired man said as he lead Max and the others down the hall. "Had to give your little walk to Armstrong."

"Hold on, Armstrong. As in Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong?" Jack found this hard to believe as walked down the hall, which had pictures of his grandfather when he was about June's age. "Grandpa, you were supposed to be the first man on the moon?"

"He sure was. Does this man look familiar?" He pointed at a picture of Max when his hair was still dark brown instead of it's current greyish white.. "Best astronaut in the program."

"A, uh, different duty called." Max said.

"So, what can I help you with Max?"

"Just playing tourist. Wanted to show the grandkids the old stomping grounds."

Jack walked down the hall, looking the pictures of his grandfather. He bumped into Doctor Victor, who was taller than Jack by about eight inches. "Whoops, sorry." Jack apologized. Doctor Victor looked down at Jack's wrist and saw the Omnitrix, which was normally hidden under the sleeve of Jack's jacket, but the florida summer was too hot for that, so all he wore was a black t-shirt.

"You shouldn't be here." Doctor Victor said. He walked around Jack. "You bring unauthorized visitors into a classified area." He stormed past Gwen, Max, and Frank. "Get rid of them."

"What's his problem? And what's the deal with the black glove?" Jack asked, but got no response.

"It's kinda a crazy day Max." Frank said. "With the delay and all, maybe another day. You remember the way out, right?" Frank walked away from the group.

Without speaking, Max made pointed in th opposite direction that Frank went. He, Jack, and Gwen made their way down the hall.

Later...

The Tennysons and Jack made their way to a room with white tiled floors the hall was at least thirty feet wide and the ceiling was about forty feet above them with a cat walk about ten feet from the ceiling.

"So I never did wind up going into space with NASA." Max said.

"Bummer, don't you ever regret not being the first man on the moon?" Gwen asked.

"Eh, kinda. I just took my leaps for mankind in other ways." A door opened. "Hold on. "Max told his grandkids to stop walking. They hid behind the corner of a wall, with Max looking over the side of it. He saw two janitors walking across the smaller corridor.

They continued down the hall and came to a door with a hand shaped indent as well as a gear shaped piece of metal that had two holes in it. Max used what looked like a swiss army knife to open the lock by extending one of the tools, then pressing a button that cause it to form into a piece of metal that fit into the holes of the lock. Numbers started flashing as the lock was picked.

The word open flashed on the screen in green digital letters. The door opened.

"Plumber standard issue." Max said before pocketing his lockpick.

They entered the previously inaccessible room to find that it was mission control.

"Nasa records everything." Max said as he sat down in one of the chairs. "Let's see what they have about this purple lightning."

"I thought we were here to find out about the Project Damocles satellite. Right?" Jack said.

"If we can we will, but right now, this is more important."

Meanwhile...

At the launch pad, Doctor Victor was typing in something on a keypad. Dr Shueman walked across the boarding ramp to the space shuttle that had the keypad.

"Ah, Doctor Victor, there you are. I need to speak to you about your credentials."

"Not now." A the frustrated man demanded to be left alone.

Frank had enough of this. "Doctor Victor, I am your superior."

"You have no idea how wrong you are."

The bandage like tendrils that belonged to the mummy grabbed Frank. He was pulled up and saw his captor, the alien mummy.

The Yenaldooshi climbed through the open areas of the boarding ramp. The alien werewolf growled.

"Take care of the boy." Victor ordered. "I don't want anything to interfere with our plans."

The Yenaldooshi jumped off of the boarding ramp and went to go take care of its target.

Back at mission control...

Jack exhaled in frustration. "Who knew looking through security camera footage to find some secret would be this boring." Jack groaned.

"These must be pre launch images." Max found something called news footage. "Okay, we're onto something now." Max continued to type into the terminal.

Jack yawned. He got up from the chair he sat in and exited mission control. When he was sure he was closed the door, he decided he was going to do things his way. "You guys have your way of finding out thing, and I have mine."

Later...

Jack wandered into the part of the space center where they train astronauts. He entered a door that lead to a dome shaped building that was inside the larger structure. He found that inside the room, there was a human centrifuge.

"Neat." Jack got out his cellphone and took a picture of it. He heard something land behind him. Jack turned to see the Yenaldooshi. The alien werewolf growled at Jack. "The werewolf!" The Yenaldooshi lunged at Jack, who tried to close the door to the centrifuge room, but the werewolf got stuck in the door. "Heatblast is gonna singe that mangy fur coat of yours." Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Heatblast. But when he slammed the dial down, he was transformed into a completely different alien.

"The Mummy? Aw great." This new alien form said. Jackmummy looked exactly like the original, except this one had green eyes and green lines on his black gauntlets.

The Yenaldooshi squeezed through the door, which soon closed, leaving Jackmummy and the Yenaldooshi in the same room. The Yenaldooshi approached Jack, and tried to claw at him, but Jack dodged the Werewolf's strikes effortlessly. The Yenaldooshi then kicked Jackmummy into the center of the room, hitting him against the motor casing of the centrifuge.

Jack reached out and tried to hold the Yenaldooshi back by using his bandages to tie up its arms and legs, however, that proved to be merely a temporary solution, as the Yenaldooshi cut through them effortlessly.

"Scrap! Come on Jack! Think! Think!" Jack pounded his head with his now cloth like hands. The werewolf tried to bite him, but Jack expanded, allowing the werewolf to pass right through him. He then pulled himself together and held the Yenaldooshi in place. The Yenaldooshi extended its claws and cut through his target and got out. "Ow! Ow! Hey! Stop that!" Jack was being ripped apart. When the wolf got out, Jack thought he was gonna die, but saw that what the Yenaldooshi cut off, grew back. Jack was really starting to like this new form of his. But he was now starting to regret wandering off.

Back in mission control...

Gwen and Max looked through the footage of the launch pad.

"Here's the footage from when the purple lightning hit." Max said as he fast forward through the video.

Gwen saw something that stood out. "Wait, what's that?" She pointed to the far end of the launch pad. "Zoom in, right there on the launch pad. Max zoomed in to see what it was on the launch pad, it was Doctor Victor. "Doctor VIctor?"

"Huh. Awful big coincidence don't you think Jack." Max didn't hear Jack respond. He turned to see that Jack was gone. "Jack?"

Back in the centrifuge...

Jackmummy had been grabbed by the Yenaldooshi and tossed across the room. He got up and tried to charge at the Loboan, but Jack tripped on his own hands(as ridiculous as that sounds). "How the heck do work these things." Jack got up in a hurry as the Yenaldooshi got closer to him. The alien werewolf grabbed Jack front of his neck and tossed him across the room. "Oh man, why didn't I try to use this one earlier." Jack said. "Gotta learn on the fly." He extended his bandage like fingers and tried to restrain the Yenaldooshi by tying its mouth shut. The Yenaldooshi almost instantly broke through the bandages. The werewolf jumped up and was about to tackle Jack, but Jack reached up and grabbed the Yenaldooshi out of the air and tossed him through a window.

The purple eyed alien werewolf landed on the on button for the centrifuge. An alarm went off before Hell's merry go round started up. Jack ducked to avoid being hit by it while the Yenaldooshi jumped over the arm. The Loboan landed a few feet from Jack, who grabbed the Yenaldooshi's ankle and tossed him away. Jack turned around just in time to see the centrifuge come towards him, giving him an opportunity jump up and avoid being hit by the centrifuge. Jack and the Yenaldooshi got into a scuffle as Jack dodged the Yenaldooshi's claws. The Yenaldooshi got up on top of where a person would sit in the centrifuge as it came past them. The Yenaldooshi reached down as the gondola came by Jack again, attempting to slice his head open. Jack ducked avoided the razor sharp claws. After the Yenaldooshi made another pass, Jack got an idea. He jumped up and extended his arm and grabbed onto the centrifuge arm. He retracted his arm and came racing towards the Yenaldooshi in a flying side kick like motion. Knowing we wouldn't have a chance like this any time soon, Jack shouted: "RIder kick!" The Yenaldooshi was struck, but didn't fall off. It then punched Jack off of the arm, but Jack held on by using his feet as secondary hands. He did however tip over, causing his black and gold headdress to blow in the breeze. When he pulled himself up, the Yenaldooshi tried to claw him, but Jack stepped back, dodging that. He jumped back, getting on top of the gondola. The Yenaldooshi opened its jaws and unleashed its sonic roar in Jack's direction, which he was able to avoid by jumping off of the arm.

The shockwave destroyed the centrifuge, as well as a bit of the wall. Jackmummy ran up to the hole in the wall and looked around and all he found was a dust cloud. "Where'd he go?" Jack saw someone approach him. He reached out to grab what he thought was the werewolf. "Gotcha!" But what he reached for pulled back.

"I don't think so." Jack looked up to see that his grandpa Max was who he saw.

Gwen walked up and saw the Omnitrix dial on the Mummy's left shoulder. "Jack? Is that you?"

Jack groaned as he got up. "Unfortunately."

"Oh, sorry about that. From far away, you looked like the Mummy June sent me pictures of."

The Omnitrix beeped before Jackmummy was replace with Jack. "The werewolf from the indian reservation attacked me." Jack explained. "He's gotta be running around here somewhere."

"I don't like it." Max scratched his chin. "Doctor Victor being around when purple lightning grounds the shuttle, and then the werewolf shows up. What's next?"

"That!" Gwen pointed at the bolts of purple lightning that were coming from outside.

"We better check this out!" Jack said before heading out of the building through the hole the Yenaldooshi made.

"Well, he sure knows how to get in line." Gwen was surprised at how quickly the idea of working as a team got into Jack's head. She and Max followed Jack.

Outside...

Jack, Gwen, and Max arrived at a junkyard for old rockets that had been decommissioned.

"The purple lightning must've come from around here."

"What's this place grandpa?" Asked Jack who was looking at all the old spacecraft.

"They call this the graveyard." Their grandfather explained. "Rockets, thrusters, engines, capsules, you name it, and from every mission. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo." Max and his grandkids stopped at a rusting lunar lander. "NASA is a bit like your Aunt Vera, neither one likes to throw anything out."

Gwen saw a plague on the lander's capsule. "Grandpa, this is dated 1968, and it says" She read the plague. "'To the brave men who valiantly reached the heavens', and there are initials of all the astronauts. M T wouldn't happen to be Maxwell Tennyson, would it?"

Max thought about what could've been. "You can't live in the past."

The Yenaldooshi landed on the spent stage of a rocket. Its snarl caught Jack's attention. "And something tells me he doesn't want us living in the present either." He pointed at the werewolf.

The Yenaldooshi unleashed its sonic roar, aiming it at the trio, making them cover their ears in pain. After a few seconds, it sent them back flying , knocking over the capsule with the plague on it. The Yenaldooshi hopped onto a nose cone and then jumped towards Max and the kids. Max threw a silver disk at the Yenaldooshi, which when it hit the werewolf's muzzle, it held the creature's mouth shut.

Gwen looked at Max like he threw a banana at the werewolf. "Plumber standard issue." Max said before Gwen could say anything.

"Ah!" Gwen screamed as she was unexpectedly grabbed by one of the Mummy's tendrils. As it dragged her, he managed to grab onto a pipe and tried to resist, but the Mummy's grip was too strong. "The mummy and the werewolf?"

The mummy saw Jack and reached out with another of its tendrils and tried to grab Jack, but the teen ran in an attempt to get away from the alien, but regardless, he was caught. The tendril wrapped around his chest. Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed, trying to turn into Upgrade, but got Cannonbolt instead. "Aw man. What do you have against me- oh right, I broke you. Stupid!"

The mummy yanked hard enough to get Gwen to loose her grip, but didn't notice that the pull on Jack was getting lighter. From around the corner, he saw Cannonbolt approach him, coming towards him, eventually ramming into him. Gwen was knocked out of the Mummy's grasp and landed on a booster rocket while the Mummy landed on the ground. The mummy stood up and opened its chest cavity, revealing the corodium that it had in its possession.

"Gwen! Get back! It's gonna release the corodium." Max warned as Gwen tried to pull herself up onto the rocket. Cannonbolt landed on the rocket and grabbed her. The Mummy tried to grab both of them, but Cannonbolt jumped, rolled up into a ball and slammed onto the Mummy, rushing it. The mummy twitched when Cannonbolt bounced off of it.

Cannonbolt rolled around a Saturn V engine and uncurled, placing a slightly dizzy Gwen on the ground and then rolling off again.

The Yenaldooshi managed to get the muzzle off of him. He jumped at max, but the old man was pretty agile for his age and jumped to get out of the way.

"Hang on grandpa! I'm on my way!" Cannonbolt shouted before ramming the Yenaldooshi into a scrapped rocket. He unrolled. "Back off my grandpa Jacob!" Seconds after that, Cannonbolt was zapped with a bolt of purple electricity. Cannonbolt twitched before falling on his back.

Max looked the see mr sunshine himself doctor Victor, who was standing on atop a stack of crates. "I was told of the Omnitrix." Victor said. "But you are not the only one with the power to transform Tennyson."

"What's the deal with people calling me Tennyson?" Cannonbolt groaned as he stood up. "First Vilgax, then Paradox, and now this guy. Wait, did he say transform?"

Doctor Victor's lab coat tore as two tesla coils grew out of his back. He got bulkier, his fist tearing through his black glove. His skin became a pale green color. His eyes became purple, as his left eye grey larger as if to resemble a monocle. He looked like an alien Frankenstein's monster.

"We could be in trouble." Cannonbolt knew that he was hosed. Max silently knocked in agreement.

From her hiding spot, Gwen saw the freak show and knew she had to do something to help Jack and Max. She pulled out the spell book she got from helping defeat Charmcaster. "There's gotta be a good anti rampaging alien monster spell in here somewhere." She said as she flipped through the pages.

Victor, now Viktor jumped off of the crates and stood twenty feet from Cannonbolt and Max. He was joined by the Yenaldooshi and the Mummy. "I want them eliminated before the launch." The Halloween trio approached Cannonbolt and Max. Gwen jumped in front of her family members.

"This spells gonna blow all of you freaks outta here!" Gwen the read the spell out loud. "Twista Combititus!"

Nothing happened. Viktor looked around for any sign that this wasn't a joke. "I'll show you some magic." He held out his fist, which glowed with purple energy. "I'm gonna make you all disappear." He shot purple lightning at her trio, but right before it made contact with them, pieces of scrap metal came together and formed a cobra shaped entity that absorbed all of the blast.

"That was amazing!" Gwen shouted. "Just wish I knew how did it."

The scrap metal cobra was tossed into a rocket that was behind the Tennysons, punching a hole through it and making the rocket fall. Cannonbolt grabbed Max and Gwen and rolled into a ball, protecting them while the Halloween trio saw them get crushed, Viktor believing that they were dead.

The Yenaldooshi sniffed the wreckage, but Viktor didn't have time for this. "Enough. They're dead, and we need to prepare for the launch." Viktor, the Mummy, and the Yenaldooshi walked away.

When the monsters were gone, Cannonbolt lifted up the metal that had buried him. He reached into the rubble and picked up Gwen and Max. The Omnitrix beeped before reverting Cannonbolt back to Jack. Gwen wasn't standing on the ground when the watch timed out, so when it did, she fell to the ground, but Jack helped her up.

"I've got a really bad feeling that they're taking the corodium to that spacecraft." Max pointed at the shuttle that was still on the launch pad.

Jack got another plan. "Okay, so I go XLR8, stop the launch, get the corodium, then come back here and deal with Bolt neck and his pals."

"Excellent idea, except for one tiny detail," Gwen explained. "The Omnitrix just timed out, who knows when it's gonna let you transform again."

Max placed his hand on his grandson's shoulder. "Jack, I know you think you can do this by yourself, but you have to realize that you can't do everything Jack. We have to work as team. Gwen and I will deal with the launch, and once the watch recharges, I want you to have a little chat with doctor Viktor."

"Jack, we're with you, not against you." Gwen assured her cousin.

"I just don't want you guys to get hurt." Jack said. Gwen and Max headed towards the shuttle. "If you run into trouble, don't panic. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Jack, we can handle ourselves." Gwen turned around and followed Max.

Jack heard the sound of metal footsteps. He ran in the direction of the noise. On the way there, he found something, or rather someone in expected. Soundwave's little spy, Laserbeak. Jack had overheard the Autobots say that Soundwave and Laserbeak were telepathically linked, so he whispered into the bird bot's ear. "Soundwave, tell Megatron that there's three alien monsters here that have corodium, and that it's dangerous for Cybertronians. I've got it, okay?" The cyber bird nodded.

Jack continued following the three monsters. Saw them go around an old wrecked fighter jet. When Jack ran to catch up with them. He found nothing but more scrap. He continued walking dry rough the scrapyard. He thought he was lost, but heard something, it was a clanging sound that was coming from crew pod for a rocket. There was a door, which Jack opened to reveal a larger open area that was made of more than just the crew pod. The inside of this area was more than a hundred feet deep, and twenty five feet wide. Jack proceeded down some steps that one of the aliens had built, most likely Viktor.

When he got to the bottom of the stairs, he saw Viktor speaking to the Yenaldooshi. He hid behind a large metal crate, but was able to hear the conversation.

"Are you clear on you instructions?" Viktor asked the werewolf of debatable sentience. "The downlink must be aligned when projection begins." The werewolf growled before following Viktor. Jack moved to a new hiding spot. Viktor and the Yenaldooshi stood on a platform that rose up. Jack ran over and grabbed onto one of the cables that were used to power the lift. Jack rode the cable the top of the lift. When the lift stopped, Jack saw what Viktor was doing. Four cables attached themselves to sockets on Viktor's back. Energy flowed through them and into Viktor. Doctor Frankenstein's Monster funneled the energy into two huge emitters that unleashed a large purple disk of energy. The disk grew in size and opened to reveal what it was. It was a teleported, similar to a ground bridge, but had major difference, this sucked things through it. The Yenaldooshi was sucked into the portal, which sent him to the Navajo reservation where Jack first encountered it.

"This can't be good." Jack said.

Mission control…

Gwen and Max entered the control, once again finding it empty. "Where is everybody?" Gwen asked.

Max stat down in front of one of the computers and began trying to hack into the system. "Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth." Gwen walked over to Max, but the colorful shirt man needed Gwen's aid elsewhere. "See if you can access the mainframe."

Later…

Max tried every code that he knew NASA used, but none of them worked.

"All the overrides have been locked out." Gwen was having troubles as well. "This is great, who knew doctor monster was just as big a computer geek as Raf."

"Well then, we're gonna have to shut it down from inside the spacecraft." Max said. He turned to face Gwen. "Maybe you should stay here, you know just incase."

Gwen knew that her grandpa was using the same reasoning for going in alone that Jack was using. "I seem to remember someone saying something recently like we have to work as a team."

"Point taken." Max took something out of his pocket and tossed it to Gwen. "But, if the Corodium is on board, we'll need these."

Max and Gwen put on the devices, which were level-10 hazmat suit, the same type that June had when Jack first encountered the mummy.

"Level ten hazmat suits, nothing that can harm you gets in. Now we should be ready for anything."

Max and Gwen didn't notice that two nasa employees were tied up by the mummy and were lipping unconscious on against one of the rows of computers.

Back with Jack…

Jack peered out from his hiding spot and saw Viktor working on something. The alien scientist had his back turned towards Jack. Jack saw that the Omnitrix had recharged and activated it, preparing to transform.

"Now, if I could just get a little cooperation." Jack selected XLR8. He slammed down on the dial and found himself transformed into the right alien. "Yes, got what I asked for." XLR8 said with his clicking voice. "That muscle head will never know what hit him." XLR8 lowered his all black visor and sprinted towards Viktor. When he was withing four feet of the alien Frankenstien, he jumped, but was immediently swatted across the room. "Woah, good reflexes." XLR8 said after coming to a stop. He rubbed his head before getting back up.

"You will not stop me boy, even with your pitiful array of weakling aliens." Viktor shot lightning at XLR8, but the kineceleran dodged every one of his shots. But Viktor did however manage to grab XLR8's tail. He held the raptor like alien above his head. "I'll rip you apart."

XLR8 got out of Viktor's grip and kicked his face with his wheel tipped feet. He then jumped off of Viktor's face and landed in the ground. Viktor roared in anger.

The cables that powered the teleporter attached to Viktor. "These games have delayed me long enough." Viktor opened a portal to the arctic. "Enjoy your trip." The portal began to suck XLR8 in, but XLR8 tried to get away, however, the pull was too strong. He was hit by a barrel that kicked him off his feet.

XLR8 grabbed the barrel and tossed it into the portal. "Sure hope this works." When the barrel went through it, the portal closed, causing XLR8 to fall to the floor. "Better hurry." He said after getting up in a millisecond. XLR8 zoomed over to Viktor and saw something very much out of place. "Uh, what's he gonna do with that?"

Viktor was on a platform that was near a tesla coil. He saw that Jack was still here. "You are resilient. But your presence changes nothing." Viktor held out a remote with two buttons, one red, one green. "Obserb." He pressed the green button with his thumb.

In the space shuttle…

Gwen and Max were climbing up the through the space shuttle.

The structure started to shake.

"What's happening?" Gwen panicked.

Max knew what was going on. "Main thrusters ignition. Looks like we're going for a ride." Max activated the suit's magnetic grip.

"A ride? Where was the count down? There's supposed to be a T minus whatever countdown, you know, ten, nine, eight."

Max grabbed onto his granddaughter. "Gwen, you just became an astronaut."

The space shuttle took off.

Back with XLR8…

"Grandpa and Gwen!" XLR8 knew that he had to save them, but he didn't know how. "I don't know what your plan is, but it's over franken freak!"

"Oh, it's not my plan." Viktor said as electricity arced through him. "It's the master's. It always was." The energy when into a tesla coil, which sent the energy into a structure the at Jack recognized.

"The master? Who's the-" After seeing the building, which was a portion of the bell tower from Bancroft where he killed Ghostfreak. "Wait a minute. I know this place." XLR8 came to one single conclusion, and he didn't like it.

"Yes. It is where you believed you destroyed my master. Oh how wrong you were child."

Grey goo seeped through the cracks in the bricks and floated above the Tesla coil, forming into ball that then formed into a form that he recognized. The identity of the being made XLR8 gasp in dread.

"I live!" The recently revived Ghostfreak rasped.

"Ghostfreak?!" XLR8 was starting to panic.

"Master," Viktor bowed. "all is prepared for your return."

"How the heck is that possible! I saw him fry with my own eyes!" The Omnitrix picked the worst time to time out as XLR8 was reverted back into Jack.

In the upper atmosphere…

The booster rockets detached from the fuel tank.

Inside the shuttle, Gwen had been flinching as the shuttle exited the atmosphere and entered the endless, but not lifeless void that was outer space. She didn't go splat on back of the shuttle because her grandfather held onto her the whole way.

"Don't worry, the worst is over. Come on." Max detached from the ladder and floated over to a hatch that lead to another part of the ship. Little did they know that the mummy was on the other side of the hatch"

Back on Earth...

Ghostfreak floated over to Jack. "You and I have a score to settle, Jack Tennyson!"

Jack stared at his escaped transformation with total dread.

Chapter end.


	29. Ghostfreak's Master Plan part 2

Transformers Power of Ten; Three things happened last time.

One, doctor Victor is revealed to be an alien known as Viktor.

Two, the mummy and Yenaldooshi are revealed to be working for Viktor.

And three, Ghostfreak is revived.

Where we left off…

Jack decided to hightail it out of there and ran as fast as he could to get away from Ghostfreak, who's probably mad that Jack tried to kill him. Jack ran across a cat walk. Ghostfreak rose up from the floor in front of him. Jack then turned and ran the other way. He would've made it to the other side of the platform, but Viktor landed on the catwalk, causing the metal to warp, knocking Jack off his feet. Viktor tried to grab Jack, but the teen climbed on the handrail and jumped off it, grabbing onto a wire that he used to swing to the other side.

Furious, Viktor charged up his tesla coils and prepared to fry Jack, but Ghostfreak grabbed his servant's arms, and pushed them up so that Viktor wouldn't fry the Ectonurite's prize. The lightning did however hit the cable that Jack held onto, burning through it and causing Jack to fall to a platform below him, but was unharmed. "He must be alive if I am to merge with him if I am to control the Omnitrix!" Ghostfreak flew in Jack's direction.

Jack hid behind a pillar and was breathing heavily. Ghostfreak flew through a wall and was near Jack, but couldn't see him.

"What's the matter Jack?" Ghostfreak hissed. "Aren't you glad to see me? Haven't you learned by now that nothing can stop me?!" Ghostfreak phased through the wall Jack hid behind and looked at Jack with his sole black eye.

Jack got up and ran. "Yeah, nothing except," Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed. He didn't look to see which alien he selected, so he was at his watch's mercy. "Grey Matter?! Oh man! Give me a break!"

Viktor jumped down onto the platform where Grey Matter stood. The weight he put on the metal caused the rivets that held the platform together to stretch out and form s crevasse that the Seven inch tall alien fell down. Viktor did try to grab Grey Matter, but his reflexes were too slow. However, when Viktor thought he had Grey Matter, he opened his hand and saw that he had nothing in it.

Grey Matter was crawling around the internal workings of the machine that Doctor Viktor had built. Ghostfreak stuck his head into the chamber, but couldn't find the galvan tha was avoiding him.

"Find him!" Ghostfreak ordered his servant. "I can't merge with him in his alien form, but it's merely a matter of time before he turns human again."

Up in space…

In the space shuttle, Max and Gwen floated through the vehicle's corridors looking for the cockpit.

"Shouldn't we be looking for the corodium?" Gwen asked as she and her grandfather climbed up a ladder.

"Easier to bring the entire kit and kaboodle back to earth then waste time searching for a few rocks in a whole rocket ship." Answered Max.

"Guess we know where Aunt June and I got our brains from." Gwen and Max made it to the cockpit, but found that it was empty. "But are you sure you remember how to fly this thing grandpa?"

Max sat down in the pilot's seat. "Just like riding a bicycle." Gwen sat next to him. "A hundred ton, twenty thousand miles per hour, high tech bicycle."

Little did they know that the Mummy was in the cockpit with them, but was hiding in the ventilation ducts.

Back on earth…

Ghostfreak and Viktor continued looking for Jack. Ghostfreak was phasing through the walls and floors, Viktor was pulling off things that were nailed down.

"Why are we chasing this little pest? The master plan is so close to becoming reality." Viktor had angered Ghostfreak, who turned to face his servant and hissed ferally at Viktor and approached him. Ghostfreak flew into Viktor and possessed him. G-Vikor was tossed against the wall, then was slammed on the ground, rose up and was slammed down again. G-Viktor then floated up signs and was tossed towards what looked like an oversized muffler. Ghostfreak left Viktor before he colored with the structure.

"You fool!" Ghostfreak was furious. "That little pest could ruin everything we've planned. Do as I say and it will be you will be the focus of my wrath!"

Underneath them, grey matter overheard this. "Master plan? I don't like the sound of that." Grey matter jumped onto an orange tube and slid down it. He slid down it as far as he could and found that at the bottom of this structure, there was a bunch of monitors that showed the various stages of the plan. "And I like the looks of it even less." Grey Matter ran over to the computers and made contact with the shuttle.

In space…

A transmission was coming from earth. It was from Grey Matter.

"Yo, earth to grandpa. Come in grandpa."

"Jack?" Max was surprised to here Jack's voice, regardless of what form he was in.

"If you're checking up on us don't bother. We're totally handling things up here. We don't need your help." Gwen's ignorance to the grand scheme that's at place fueling her words.

Grey Matter's face was on screen. "Wrong. When you hear what I'm about to say, you're gonna wish you had my alien muscle with you."

"Um, since when is Grey Matter muscle?" The voice of Miko asked before a live feed from the autobot base showed up. The autobots, June, Fowler, Miko, and Raf were present

Arcee glared at Miko. "Miko, please be quiet."

"Go on Jack, why'd you contact us?" Asked Ratchet.

"I figured out where the satellite the cons almost got went to, apparently it was Doctor Bolt Head that hacked into the thrusters by hacking into Soundwave by after he hacked into the Nemesis."

"Doctor Bolt Head? Really Jack? Is that the kind of villains you fight?" Smokescreen practically laughed at that name.

"Doctor Bolt head is actually Doctor Vikor, a Transylian."

"So you found the satellite, great job, we'll bridge you back."

"No can do. It seems that Doctor Viktor is going to use the satellite as a part of a system that will project a corodium beam from the space station that Gwen and Grandpa are heading to a transceiver in New Mexico."

"Which will then spread it over the entire earth." Optimus hit the nail right on the head.

"Hold on New Mexico? Like where we first took on the werewolf?" June was also seeing the connections.

"Yep. That's why he was stealing that satellite equipment."

"A beam of corodium like that will mutate all life on earth." Ratchet added.

"Exactly. But the thing is, that's just a side effect."

"What do you mean?" Asked Fowler. "So if it isn't Vik's plan to mutate every living thing, then what is it?"

"With the sun completely blocked out, Ghostfreak will be at full power all the time."

"Ghostfreak?!" Gwen, Max, June, and Raf were shocked. Arcee, who was drinking from an Energon cube did a spit take when she heard that name, getting it all over poor Bumblebee.

"How the heck is that possible? You said he was fried to a crisp."

"Well, it turns out that Doctor Monster somehow brought Ghostfreak back to life." Grey Matter still had a hard time believing what happened. "And get this, he's behind all this. The werewolf, Mr Mummy, even the Hakaider incident."

"Wait, Ghostfreak got Silas to use Hakaider?"

"No, Doctor Viktor, turns out that before started working with nasa, he was part of a little group called Defence Advanced Research by Komyoji-Project. Or DARK Project for short. Viktor learned of the string pullers, the Forever Knights, and convinced them to allow Silas to use Hakaider, which according to these files planted an idea in Silas' head to launch the Damocles satellite."

"Okay, but how did he hack into the Nemesis?"

"He bugged it."

"Jack, we will ground bridge to your coordinates. Autobots, transform and-"

"Stay in the base. Optimus, I know you feel as if you owe humanity, but you're in just as much danger if you get involved, if not more." Grey Matter explained. "Mom, you said that Corodium effects different species in different ways."

"Yeah, so what?"

"It mutates earth life into freaks of nature, and for Cybertronians, it's somehow worse. Ever wonder what it's like to have your skin melted off while you're still alive? After that you might lose your mind, becoming feral creatures who attack everything in sight. That's what it'll do to cybertronians. It's way too dangerous. Please, stay in the base so that you guys at least don't die looking like monsters. This is my fight, and I'm here to finish it."

Optimus looked at the somber expressions of the humans in the base as well as those on his subordinates. "Very well. Jack, you, Gwendolyn, and Max are the only ones who can stop Ghostfreak and save the earth.

"We won't lose Optimus, you can count on me." Grey Matter disconnected the transition to the Autobot base.

"Hold on a second Jack." Max felt his corodium detector go off. "That's strange. According to this, the corodium inside this ship is moving."

"How could it be moving? Unless…" The mummy grabbed Gwen and Max.

"It's inside the mummy!" Max groaned as he struggled to break free from the mummy's grasp.

It pulled them out of view of the camera that Grey Matter saw them through.

Back on earth…

"Grandpa! Gwen!" Jack didn't want his family to be hurt. He heard creaking coming from the behind him and saw the platform with the teleporter descend to the level that he was on. Before Ghostfreak or Viktor could see him, grey matter hid in the interior of the computer. "Oh man. Come on, think, there's gotta be something in all this junk that'll help." Grey Matter looked around and found what he needed.

He found a cube shaped transistor, a knob which held something in place, a couple of wire, and a few other things.

Ghostfreak and Viktor continued looking for Jack.

Even as grey matter assemble his little invention, he knew his time was limited. But time was about to run out as the Omnitrix beeped. "No!" Grey Matter shouted. The electronic ripping sound that was heard every time the omnitrix changed the user's form was heard by Viktor, who had been looking under pieces of heavy machinery.

Back in space…

Max and Gwen struggle against the pull of the mummy.

"Can't keep this up much longer." Max groaned as he struggled.

"Hang on grandpa!" Gwen shouted. She held her arms up.

"Wait Gwen, I don't think your spells will work in the suits."

"It's better than not trying at all." Argued Gwen. "Elota Objectia!" Gwen's suit filled with air as she was inflated to basically be a bouncing ball. Aw was propelled at the mummy, who was sent to the bottom of the ladder, then floated a bit to the side where he was then hit by Gwen who bounced off the wall and got the mummy into an area without s hatch and was hitting the ceiling and then the mummy, but suddenly, Gwen went soaring towards her grandfather and knocked the two of the, into a hatch that automatically closed.

Gwen deflated when she stopped moving. "Phew, at least I bought us some time to regroup,in this, wait, what is this? Some kind of closet? Who needs Jack and his alien heroes."

Max knew what he and Gwen were in. "Gwen, this isn't a closet. It's an airlock."

They struggled to open the door when they saw the mummy in front of it. The mummy reached over to a switch and pulled it down, opening the airlock.

An alarm went off as a red light flashed. The roof of the compartment that they were in opened up as they were sucked into space.

Gwen screamed as she floated into the inky blackness of space. The mummy saw that they were gone and closed the airlock before heading back to the cockpit.

However, even if the mummy thought Gwen and Max were going to drift forever, that wasn't the case, they had attached themselves to the side of the space station.

Gwen looked at the palm her suit's glove to see the spiral shaped patterns on her fingers. "Not very stylish, but you gotta love these plumber suits."

"Yeah, but they won't last long in zero atmosphere. We have to find another way back inside the station, and fast."

Back on earth…

Jack found himself stuck inside the computer console that he timed out in. "Stupid watch. Can this get any worse?" The console was ripped open by Viktor. Jack quickly grabbed the device that he made as grey matter. "Uh, don't suppose you could consider becoming s good guy, would yah?" Viktor grabbed Jack and tossed him across the room, Viktor absentmindedly touching the Omnitrix, unlocking another alien for Jack to use.

Ghostfreak floated over to Jack. "Soon the earth will be mine, but first, the Omnitrix!"

"You wanna be in the spotlight? How's this freak!" Jack pointed the device he made as Grey matter at Ghostfreak. Ghostfreak thought that the wielded of his former prison had lost it and laughed at Jack.

Jack pulled the trigger on the device and unleashed beam of yellow light at Ghostfreak which burned the Ectonurite. Ghostfreak flew away Jack to avoid being hit. "Sun gun, a little present from my close personal friend grey matter."

"Master?" Viktor was pissed that Jack had injured Ghostfreak. "You shall pay for your insolence child!" Viktor punched the ground, sending a shockwave that broke the floor that Jack stood on. Jack fell to the floor, but caught a cable that he used to swing to the other side of the platform that Viktor stood on. Jack climbed back up without Viktor knowing. Jack saw what looked like an engine block. He pulled a lever, which he hoped whole release the chains that held it in place. Jack's lips I hadn't run out. The engine block was released and struck Viktor, sending him over the railing and into the teleporter. Viktor got tons of electricity sent through him, which knocked him unconscious.

"Okay, one down, two to go." Jack looked around. "Now I just have to figure out a way to get up into space to help Grandpa and Gwen." Jack looked over the edge and saw that on the ground were old rocket parts. Jack then looked at the Omnitrix. It recharged a few seconds later. "Oh yeah! Just give me someone I can use!" Jack transformed into Upgrade. "Now that's what I'm talking about!"

Upgrade hopped down and merged with a rocket thruster, turning the engine into s black and green come.

Viktor landed on the bottom level with bits of the teleporter stuck to his back. He roared before charging at Upgrade, who used was just about to take off. Upgrade flew through the floors and out the roof, but with Viktor hanging on. Upgrade looked to see Viktor. He groaned. "Ugh. Why can't you just stay grounded like you master?"

Viktor tried to electrocute Upgrade, but the galvanic mechamorph shot a green laser from his,eye at Viktor, which hit the Transylian in the face, which caused temporary blindness. Viktor rubbed his eyes uncovering them seconds before upgrade's fist hit him.

In the space station…

Max and Gwen were climbing up a ladder that was on the side of the space station's main component.

"There should be a manual access panel around here somewhere." Said Max as he looked for a way in.

Gwen was impressed that her grandfather knew this much about the space station. "You know, for a guy who never went up into space, you seem to know an awful lot about it."

Gwen had misunderstood what Max had told her earlier. He explained what he meant. "I never said I didn't go into space. I said I never went into space with NASA." Max found a switch that he knew would get the two of them into the space station.

Inside the space station…

Having docked the shuttle with the station, the mummy now ran through the halls of the structure that was floating above the earth. He came to the room that he needed to be in. It was one that had the machine that would project the beam of corodium. It would also cause the Damocles satellite to fire a beam of corodium by transiting the energy signature of the mineral.

The mummy opened his chest compartment and placed the corodium shards in the machine. That caused the wires and pipes to glow purple.

"Target in range." An electronic voice said as the mummy used a joystick to get the satellites to target the machine the Yenaldooshi had created in New Mexico. "Beginning transmission in five, four, three, two,"

"I don't think so!" Max took advantage of the zero gravity environment and sidekicked the mummy away from the joystick, causing it to hit the abort button.

"Transmission aborted."

The mummy punched Max across the room. It approached Max and was about to finish him off, but Gwen tossed a box at the mummy's back, getting its attention. It grabbed her and pulled her in closer.

With Upgrade…

The rocket that Upgrade had used to fly exited the atmosphere, but Viktor was still holding onto it despite Upgrade's best efforts to knock him off. When they were in space, Viktor and Upgrade were in a contest of strength to toss the other off.

Upgrade looked over his shoulder and saw that they were approaching the space station.

"Well, this is my stop." Upgrade made his way to the front of the rocket. When he disconected from the thruster, the engine cut out and it flew past the station. Upgrade grabbed onto the space station and waved at Vikor as he drifted off. "Thank you for flying air Upgrade. Buh bye." Upgrade entered the station by merging with it then detaching when he was inside.

"Nooooo!" Viktor shouted as he drifted further and further away from the earth.

Upgrade just happened to enter the station in the same area with the mummy, who had Gwen and Max tied up.

"Jack?" They were surprises to see Jack in space.

"Who'd you expect?" Upgrade fired a green laser from his eye at the Mummy, making it drop Gwen and Max. "Somebody open the airlock."

Max floated over to a panel that had five red buttons. He pressed the top one which opened the sliding doors. Now all that was left was to get the mummy in the airlock. That was accomplished by Upgrade, who blasted the mummy again. The mummy rushed to get out, but it was too slow. It got part of its hand cut off by the door, but the majority of it was about to get blasted out into space.

"Lucky for you guys I showed up." Upgrade said seconds before the Omnitrix dial started to beep. "Aw man." Jack moaned as he floated past Gwen and Max. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

"Yeah, lucky us."

"Hey, I just saved you guys' rears."

"Hey, you know what your problem is?"

"Besides the fact that I have a lot of people trying to kill me?"

"No, it's the fact that you feel threatened by the fact that we can handle ourselves without you."

"Says the girl who almost got thrown out into space by the mummy I saved you two from."

The station shook.

"Wait, something's not right." Something was wrong.

"Target reaquired." The electronic voice said. They looked to see that the joystick was moving by itself. The being controlling it made himself visible, revealing it to be ghostfreak.

Jack was shocked to see Space Ghostfreak here. "Ghostfreak! But how?"

"You're not the only one who can hitch a ride on a rocket."

"Doesn't matter! I've stopped you before and I'll stop you again!" Jack said as he got ready to fight.

"Too late." The Ectonurite said as the countdown reached zero, sending a beam of corodium to the transceiver. The Yenaldooshi pressed in a code that sent three beams to two comm satellites and one to the Damocles satellite. The beam fanned out as the entire earth was covered with the corodium energy. Every living thing on earth, besides the Yenaldooshi was mutated into monsters. "Darkness falls!" Ghostfreak proclaimed his victory. "Earth is now my domain!"

Max had to try to stop this. He tried targeting somewhere else, but the controls were stuck.

Ghostfreak used his enemies distraction to open the airlock doors and let the mummy back in. The mummy immediately grabbed the three of them.

"Now, how shall I dispose of you three nuisances?"

Gwen got an idea. "Oh, whatever you do, don't toss us out into space." She hoped Ghostfreak would fall for her plan.

"Excellent idea. Remove the suits." He ordered his servant. The mummy did as Ghostfreak ordered and removed the hazmat suits from Gwen and Max.

"Nice one Gwen, why don't you hand over my watch while you're at it?"

"I can handle this." Gwen's spellbook had a magenta aura around it as it floated near her face. "Appendage-A Regoria!" The mummy let got of them before shaking violently. It lunged at them, but as if it was frozen, stopped.

"You've learned some new tricks since I last saw you through the Omnitrix girl."

"She's not the only one." Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected his newest alien. This alien was a transylian that looked similar to Viktor, but had green eyes, and a more symmetrical face. Jackviktor attached himself to the floor of the space station. "Electromagnetic body. Nice."

Ghostfreak brought his clawed hand down at Jackviktor, who blocked it with his armored fists. Jack tried punching at Ghostfreak, but found that he was just punching the air as Ghostfreak made himself intangible. Ghostfreak turned tangible and caught one of Jackviktor's punches, but found that that's what he wanted him to do as Jackviktor sent tons of energy into Ghostfreak. Ghostfreak groaned before retreating.

"Damnit the controls are locked! I can't shut down the corodium beam!"

"No problem grandpa." Jackviktor charged up his back mounted Tesla coils. "A little lightning should do the trick." Jack was about to fry the controls, but Ghostfreak rose up from the ground and grabbed Jack. "Okay, it's just you and me Ghostfreak." Jackviktor was pulled through the floor and out of the station.

Once outside, Jackviktor attached himself to the hull of the vehicle.

Ghostfreak explained to Jack why he was going to lose. "We're in the darkness of space. I am at my full potential!" Ghostfreak's claws grew longer, four tentacles grew out of his chest, the teeth in his skull grew longer, and numerous spikes grew out of his body. The ectonurite punched Jackviktor, sending him crashing into the side of a habitation module. Jack looked to where the beam was coming from. He got between Jack and the emitter. "Stay away from that transmitter boy!" Ghostfreak ordered.

"Make me." Jack charged up and fired a powerful bolt of green lightning at Ghostfreak, who in response, fired a purple beam of energy at him. The two blasts met, canceling each other out.

The shuttle detached from the station. Max was flying towards the dueling aliens. "Yeah, I still got the right stuff." Max said with a smug grin on his face. He saw something rounding the station. "What in the world?!" This mysterious object was the thruster that Jack used to get up here, now being controlled by Viktor. The engine flew towards the shuttle. "Bet Neil Armstrong never had to deal with this." Max and Viktor got into a shoving match high above the earth's orbit.

Inside, Gwen was trying to find a way to fix the controls. "Let's see. Reanima Verdanica!" Flowers grew out of the control panel. "Okay. How about, Reanima Dynamica!" The panel sparked, causing Gwen to jump back. She bumped into the mummy, who had unfrozen. She yelped before propelling off of the Mummy. The mummy tried to punch her, but Gwen ducked and avoided being hit. She dodged another blow, but was propelled against a door that she opened and found that it was the space toilet. "I uh, gotta go." Gwen hid in the bathroom as the mummy tried to punch down the door. The mummy ripped the door out of its frame and tossed it to the side. "Doesn't occupied mean anything to you?" The mummy went to grab Gwen, but she jumpe off the wall and flew under him. She propelled herself off a wall and sent herself at the mummy, kicking it into the wall. The mummy tried to go after Gwen, but it hit the flush button and was being sucked into space. "Say hi to nemo for me." She joke as she waved to the mummy.

Outside, Jack and Ghostfreak continued their fight. Jack avoided every blast that Ghostfreak shot at him, just as Ghostfreak was able to dodge whatever Jack threw at him. Ghostfreak fired a beam at Jackviktor, which he intercepted by shooting electicity at Ghostfreak. "Every minute brings you closer to becoming human again! It'll be a pleasure to watch you slowly die in the vacuum of space!"

"Hold on, if this is a vacuum, how can I hear you?" Jackviktor asked, stopping his attack to think about this. Ghostfreak's beam hit Jack, knocking him off the station. He was caught by the mummy and slammed onto the hull.

"Now we finish this." Ghostfreak said as he charged up a blast to finish off Jack.

Viktor and Max were still in their shoving contest. Viktor sent more energy to his thruster in an attempt to over power Max's shuttle. "Don't know what you're doing, but I don't like the looks of it." Max turned the shuttle so that Viktor was facing away from the earth. He cut the engines, allowing Viktor to win, which is what Max wanted. Viktor rammed the shuttle into the beam emitter, destroying it and causing the effects of the corrodium to dissipate, saving the earth.

"Noooo!" Ghostfreak screamed, his plan had been undone. "You will pay dearly for that." Ghostfreak fired a beam at Jack, who shocked the mummy into letting go of him. Ghostfreak shot the mummy. Jackviktor landed on a piece of the dish then jumped off it and back onto the station where he was going to punch Ghostfreak, but Ghostfreak phased through into the station, making Jak just punch metal. Ghostfreak emerged next to the mummy. Jack stood up and saw Viktor approaching him. Viktor got on his hands and knees and fired a purple beam that missed Jack, but opened up a portal that began sucking him, Jack, and the Mummy in.

The mummy went into the portal. Viktor and Jackviktor were being suched in as well. Jack held on to the side of the station, while Viktor was getting closer to the vortex. Jack fired a bolt of lightning that sent Vikor into the portal, closing it.

"Two freaks down, one to- wait, where'd he go?" The station started to explode. "Gwen!" Jack had to save his cousin.

Jack went back into the station to find the red alert lights going off.

Jackviktor went back to being Jack. "Don't worry, we just have to wait for the watch to recharge."

"We don't have time, this module's about to depressurize." Gwen saw one of the hazmat suits float by and grabbed it. She jumped over to Jack and grabbed his shoulder.

"What're you doing?"

"Saving our lives." Gwen pressed the red button and she and Jack were contained in a single hazmat suit, and just in time, as seconds later, the wall broke off, sucking them into space.

"Well this is just great, now we're gonna be floating around for eterninty. But at least we have each other."

"Enough sarcasm." Gwen said.

The space shuttle flew by them. "You kids need a lift?" Max said through the suit's radio.

Later...

Max, Gwen, and Jack were all wearing the level 10 hazmat suits.

"Mission accomplished." Max said as he flew the shuttle back to earth. "I guess saving the earth beats a moonwalk any day."

"Yeah, I guess so, but it would've gone smoother if you just let me handle this."

Gwen was tired of Jack insisting that he could save the day by himself. "Jack, admit it, we're as good as the Omnitrix."

"Yeah, no, you guys are pretty good, but nothing is as good as the Omnitrix."

Jack's wrist was grabbed by one of Ghostfreak's tentacles. "I couldn't agree more." Ghostfreak made himself visible. He grabbed Jack and took him back to the cargo bay of the shuttle. "You have only delayed my plans boy! Once I have control of the Omnitrix, Earth's defences will be powerless against me!"

Gwen had followed Jack and Ghostfreak. She saw a switch that she knew controlled the door. "Jack, sunny side up!"

Jack smile, and apparently, Ghostfreak didn't hear Gwen. "Smiling in the face of your demise. I admire that."

Jack then thought of something witty to saw to Ghostfreak. "Oh, I'm not smiling at my demise, I'm smiling at yours."

"What?!" Ghostfreak turned to see Gwen flip the switch that opened the cargo bay door.

"Now grandpa!" Gwen shouted.

"Ghostfreak, I hope you like the Beetles, 'cause here come the sun." Jack said as the shuttle turned make the cargo bay point in the direction of the sun.

"NOOOO!" Ghostfreak screamed as he was destroyed yet again.

"So, have we made our point about teamwork yet?" Gwen asked before the ship started to shake.

"We took on too much damage when I rammed the transmitter, it's breaking up!" Max went back to the cargo bay.

"Hold on guys, next stop, Earth." Jack said before transforming into Cannonbolt. He grabbed onto Max and Gwen. He rolled up and like a meteor, fell to Earth.

Cannonbolt landed in on a beach in a place that was rather cold for the summer.

"Ouch." Cannonbolt groaned before unrolling and letting Gwen and Max off. The Omnitrix time out and Jack, was in the crater Cannonbolt formed when he landed.

Jack saw that Gwen wasn't looking at him. "Alright alright." I guess we are pretty good at kicking butt together. Team?"

"Team." Gwen fist bumped Jack.

"And we've seen the last of Ghostfreak." The Omnitrix activated, showing the image of Ghostfreak's true form. "Ghostfreak. Oh crud." Jack climbed out of the crater and found a small marsupial that looked like a rat, but was as big as a house cat. On its face was a smile. "Uh, guys, where are we? And can we stay awhile? 'Cause this little guy is adorable." Jack showed Gwen and Max the mammal, a quokka, that came up to him.

Chapter end.


	30. The Future

Near MT Rushmore, four days after Ghostfreak's defeat...

Jack, Gwen, and Kevin were camping with Jack and Gwen's grandfather Max.

Gwen and Jack had smiles on their faces. "I've got the marshmallows!" Gwen said, her grin not fading.

"And I've got the graham crackers!" Said Jack.

"We'll wait here while you and Kevin get the firewood so we can make s'mores."

Max saw that his grandkids were getting along better than they normally did. "It is so nice to finally see you two getting along. We'll be back in a jiffy."

"Great!" Gwen and Jack shouted as Kevin and Max went into the woods.

"Is he gone?" Gwen asked when Kevin and Max were out of sight.

"Yep." Replied Jack.

Jack and Gwen turned toward each other. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" They shouted at each other.

"Grandpa only turns sixty four once." Gwen shoves the marshmallows at Jack, knocking him to the ground. "I had his party totally wired!" She showed Jack the list of who's responsible for what when it comes to Max's birthday. Gwen was responsible for everything but the cake, which was Jack's responsibility..

"You chose his birthday wish?"

"And how's he supposed to make one without a cake? That you were supposed to get!"

"Uh, excuse me? Full-time hero here. Plus, I got a cake and left it in the base, but then Fowler ate it, and I've never had time to go get another cake" Jack spat at his cousin. "You were supposed to remind me! Anyway, it's no big deal."

Gwen's voice lost its anger in favor of sadness. Her reason: "For Grandpa, it is."

"Fine! Play you to see who goes." Jack leaned in towards Gwen. "Rock, paper, scissors, on three!"

"Oh you are so on. You always lose."

"One, two..." Before they could get to three, a portal appeared in the middle of the campground.

"Okay. This can't be good."

A mysterious stranger flew out of the portal. She wore the Charms of Bezel on her right arm, and wore a mask that concealed her face. She swooped down and grabbed Gwen.

"Gwen!" Jack shouted as the stranger flew towards the portal.

Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed into XLR8. He chased the stranger through the portal as it closed behind him. Kevin and Max then show up, having collected the firewood, but Max's grandkids are nowhere in sight.

"Jack? Gwen?"

Somewhere in the future(twenty three years to be precise)...

The stranger flew through the portal and into a futuristic city. XLR8 appeared and knocked her down, and retrieved Gwen.

The stranger groaned when she hit the ground.

XLR8 and Gwen checked out their new surroundings. They never left the area that they started in, but somehow they had ended up in a city with humans and aliens living together. A girl flew by on a hoverboard and noticed XLR8

"Hey, Jack." XLR8 turned to face the girl. "Looking good. She blew Jack's alien form a kiss.

XLR8 waved at her, but Gwen forced his arm down. A teenage boy and his alien friend, who was the same species as Fast Track passed by. They were wearing rocket boots.

"Yo! Jack 10-K! Keep up the awesome job!"

XLR8 had no idea what that guy was talking about. "Ten what?"

The two suddenly turn and notice a giant statue they hadn't seen before.

The statue resembled Jack's human form greatly, but was about twenty five years older.

"Whoa." He read the plague that was on the statue. "Hero of Heroes: Jack Ten Thousand. Is that really...me?"

An explosion happened at the base of the statue, and it comes crumbling down. XLR8 pulls Gwen away before darting to safety.

"More like was you!"

A cybernetically enhanced rhinoceros known as Exo-Skull emerged from the clouds of dust.

"Hey, Tennyson! Long time no see."

"I'm sorry. Do I know you?"

Exo-Skull kneeled down and prepared to fire at XLR8

"Prepare for my revenge." Exo-Skull proceeded to attack, firing blasts from his laser gun horn. XLR8 dashes to avoid the blasts.

"Oh yeah? Well, why don't you prepare to see why they call me Hero of-" The Omnitrix times out, and XLR8 reverts back to Jack. Jack smacks into Exo-Skull's armor. "Yaaah! Oomph! Uh... Maybe we could talk about this?"

"Kemo Char!" The stranger fired several energy blasts at Exo-Skull. The rhino fired a blast at the stranger, but she protected herself with an energy shield. Exo-Skull fires a net from his horn, pinning down the stranger. Jack and Gwen realize they are now in danger and start to run. At that moment, something rushes out of nowhere and lands several devastating blows against Exo-Skull, shattering his horn and bringing him down.

"Okay, will someone tell me what the heck's going on here?" The alien zooms past and stops in front of the scene of the crime.

"Is that XLR8? Gwen and Jack look up to see that XLR8, only he's is a little bigger and his suit is black and white. The stranger throws the net over Exo-Skull.

Future XLR8 looked over the KO'd baddie. "Looks like the work of Animo. I'll run a DNA analysis back at headquarters." He turned to see Jack and Gwen, nervously chuckling. "And send them back now."

"Whoa. You're me, right?" Jack asked his future self. "And it looks like I'm new and improved! This is so cool! Then I'm so cool! Did you say headquarters? I have my own headquarters!" Jack was having a Miko like reaction to his future.

Future XLR8 turned away. "I don't have time for this." Jack got in his way.

"So, when can you catch me up on my other nine thousand, nine hundred and seventy five heroes?" Asked Jack.

"Hmm. How about...NEVER?" XLR8 said harshly before dashing off.

"You could lose the attitude, you know." Gwen and her and her cousin's abductor said in unison. They glanced at each other.

"Wait a minute. You're...me? Gwen?" The stranger reveals her face. To show that she's Gwen, only about two decades older.

"Actually, I've been going by Gwendolyn since college."

"College? Ivy League? Do I have a Master's?" Mik- er I mean Gwen asked at about a mile a minute.

"Look, I didn't bring you here to find out about your future. I came back to bring Jack." She answered.

"So...why nab me?"

"I remember Jack's listening skills when it came to new people sort of sucked. Grabbing you was the only way I knew he'd come." Gwendolyn had exploited Jack's protective nature.

Jack pouted.

"So time travel's no big deal now?"

"Sorta, if Paradox isn't on hand, you just need to know the right kind of spell to create the right kind of portal."

Gwen was siked to know that this might be what is in store for her. "I know Magic? How wicked is that? What else do I know how to do?" Jack clapped both of his hands over his ears. "Did I ever get my black belt?"

Jack, despite normally being rather patient, was starting to lose his cool. "Hello? Forget you, this is about me!"

Gwendolyne knew that now will not be the right time for spoilers. "He's right."

"Tell me I didn't grow up to start agreeing with Jack all the time."

"Jack and I had a lot of disagreements." Gwendolyne assured her past self that she wasn't a yes woman. "But right now, Jack 10,000 needs his help."

"I seem pretty tough. What could an awesome superhero like me need, anyway?"

Gwendolyne face palmed. "Jack 10,000 may have mastered the secrets of the Ultimatrix, but it still doesn't make him prepared for everything. There's a crisis looming even he can't get through alone."

Gwendolyn's belt buckle started flashing.

A computerized voice spoke. "Danger alert. Sector 15-D."

"What's in Sector 15-D?" Asked Gwen, who had no idea what the buckle was talking about. Wow. I just said that out loud and it didn't sound strange.

Gwendolyne explained the situation to the two time traveling teens. "Fort DNA-X, Earth's massive genetic depository with DNA samples from across the galaxy. And currently guarded by Space Sheriff Gavan."

"Dr. Animo!" Gwendolyne turned to face Jack. "That's a crisis, right? That's why I'm here! He made that robot rhino kaijin, and now he's doing something else!" It's time to give the doctor a double dose of Jack medicine." Jack was both looking for a fight again and for the first time. "Come on, I'll give us a lift. Jack tried to use the Omnitrix, but but found that it's still in recharge mode. "Aw, man! Can't this thing power up faster in the future?"

The sound of a horn honking was heard. The Rust Bucket parked in front of the group. The door opened, and out stepped Max, only he was a bit thinner and had a beard. "Gwendolyn! I thought that was you."

Gwen and Jack pered out from behind Gwendolyn's legs. "And us." Said Jack while he and Gwen had smiles across their faces.

Old Max smiled when he saw his younger grandkids. "Well, I see someone finally figured out how to work their time portal."

Jack and Gwen ran up and gave Max a hug. "Grandpa!"

"Now this is what I call a great gift. Seeing you two again."

Gwen wondered what he meant by again. "Don't you still see us?"

"Oh yes, I see Gwendolyn a lot."

"It's great seeing you, too." She noticed that Max was wearing the same cloths. "But the same shirt? Grandpa, it was twenty five years out of style twenty five years ago."

Max defended his choice of clothing. "Hey, when you find a look that works..."

Jack interrupted his grandfather. "Grandpa, we need a ride."

Gwen and Gwendolyn told Max where they needed to go. "Fort DNA-X."

"Hop in." Max said as he got back into the Rust Bucket.

Jack and Gwen were pleasantly surprised at the changes to the Rust Bucket's interior. "Whoa! It's totally teched out!"

"You ain't seen nothin yet." Gwendolyne knew something that she didn't dare spoil for them.

The Rust Bucket transforms into its high speed mode. It hovers off the ground before its wheels fold up, revealing that it can now fly.

"Hit it, Grandpa." The Rust Bucket took off just as the Plumbers arrive on the scene. Jack and Gwen glance out the window at the sights of the city below, amazed at how much things have changed just a few decades.

"So, where do I sleep?" Asked Jack, who wanted to know more about the future.

"In your fancy headquarters. Where else?" Gwendolyne said that as if she was repulsed. "You're too good to stay with us anymore."

"Guess you just have...other priorities." Max said.

Jack and Gwen looked at each other. The Rust Bucket stopped outside of Fort DNA-X.

"Well, here we are." Max said as he pressed a button to open up the door. Gwen and Gwendolyne exited the Rust Bucket. Jack saw that his older grandfather wasn't following them.

"You coming, Grandpa?"

"Oh, uh, no, no." Max said with passive aggressive sadness. "You haven't needed my help for a long time. Just make sure you say goodbye before Gwendolyn sends you back." As Jack walked out, Max was overcome with a look of depression. The Rust Bucket door closed.

Once outside of the Rust Bucket, Jack activated the Omnitrix. "Time to go Four Arms and show Jack 10,000 where it all began!" Jack ended up as Stinkfly instead.

"Yeah. With you messing up again." Gwen practically laughed at Jack.

Stinkfly groaned angrily. The group entered the fort through a door ath looks like a 'D' and find themselves in a room lined with containment chambers that have different aliens in them. A sudden explosion knocks them to the ground. Future Four Arms comes flying out of the smoke and hits the ground.

Seconds later, a humanoid in silver armor was thrown out of the smoke. He landed next to Future Four Arms. Soon after, he stood up, reorienting himself.

Stinkfly flew in front of F. Four Arms. "Hey! I was gonna go Four Arms, too! Great minds must think alike!"

"I don't think so! Now go!" Future Four Arms shouted at his younger self.

The armored humanoid spoke with a rather calm voice. "Thank you for coming when you did Jackson." He looked at past stinkfly, then at what to him was present Four Arms before saying. "Animo must have hit me harder than I thought. Tell me, does the Ultimatrix do this regularly?"

"He's from the past. Which is when somebody should be sending them back to." Future Four Arms growled.

"Okay, who's Mr Serious over here?" Past Stinkfly asked. "What're you? Some kind of robot?"

"I am unable to tell you my full name, but let us just say that I am a friend." The silver guy said. Screw it. For the sake of the reader, I'm gonna tell you guys something that I wish I could've kept secret until much later. But if you haven't figured it out, this is Rook Blonko, but in his current state, he's called Space Sheriff Gavan.

"I don't care. They have to go."

A containment chamber slams into the ground. Dr. Animo emerges out of the big hole in the wall. The doctor is biologically enhanced now, and his head is in a life support tank and is attached to a massive, gorilla-like body.

"No one's going anywhere!" Animo saw that Stinkfly was with Four Arms and Gavan. "I see you brought help! You're going to need it! For every one of your ten thousand heroes, I will steal enough DNA to create ten thousand monstrous minions!"

Stinkfly flew in front of Future Four Arms. "Oh yeah? Think again!" He charges, but Animo knocks him backwards into Future Four Arms.

"Kemo Char!" Gwendolyne fired a beam of energy at Animo, which he deflected with a piece of the floor. Gwendolyn brought up a shield around her to block the deflected blast. However, she was knocked out of the air.

"Gavan dynamic!" Gavan energized his sword and then swung it at Animo, breaking the piece that he used to block Gwendolyn's blast in half.

Future Four Arms pulled a rail over Stinkfly's tail.

"Stay outta my way!" Ordered Future Four Arms.

"Hey! You can't-I mean, I can't do that to me!" Stinkfly complained as he struggled in vain to get out of the hold that his future self put him in.

Dr. Animo pounds his chest. A fight between the two old enemies ensues.

"Shouldn't we help or something?" Gwen asked, seeing the future version if her cousin both dish out and take a lot of punishment on Animo.

Gavan sat next to Jack he removed his helmet to show Gwen and Jack what he was underneath. He was an alien known as a Revonnahgander. "No. He prefers it this way." He sighed.

"Hey!" Stinkfly shouted as he struggled. "I'm missing all the action!"

Jack 10,000 tosses Animo across the room. He turns into an alien known as Spittor and sprays Animo with a brownish yellow liquid. Jack 10,000 then turns into Diamondhead and slams his fist on the ground, causing a bunch of crystals to engulf Animo, which the not so good doctor breaks out of. Animo grabs a mechanical arm and slams it down on Future Diamondhead, who covered himself with crystals that shattered when Animo came down and struck them. The mechanical arms sparked when green electricity arced up it and zapped Animo. The source of the shock was a Nosedeen Quasar named Buzzshock. He then turned into Cannonbolt while running towards Animo, knocking him back into a containment tube.

"Wow, I rock! What do you call that other one? Loogie Man? Spitter?"

Future Cannonbolt had enough of his past self's optimism. "They're not pets. I don't name them anymore. He changes to Four Arms and walks towards Animo.

"Aw, but that was half the fun."

Animo sees Future Four Arms approach him with a fist raised. He thinks Jack's going to kill him.

Future Four Arms punches the wall next to Animo and pulls a bunch of wires and metal over Animo, binding him while Stinkfly is still struggling to free his tail.

"Did we detect a cry for help?" A heroic voice asked. "The Galactic Enforcers have arrived!" Three aliens teleported in, a tetramand woman named Tini, a blue skinned alien name Ultimos, and a squid like alien named Synaptak.

Future Four Arms turns into Big Chill, who is more bat like and has more muscles.

Future Big Chill flapped his wings before taking off. "Show's over, guys."

Ultimos didn't like being on cleanup duty. ""It's a big world, Jack. You could always save a couple of the bad guys for us, you know."

"What would be the point? But since you're here, how about bringing Animo back to the Null Void Chamber for me?" Future Big Chill requested..

"Yeah, sure. Anything to help." Ultimos pouted.

Jack's Omnitrix timed out, reverting him back to normal and setting him free.

Future Big Chill spoke to his cousin. "Gwendolyn, I'll meet you back at headquarters." Future Big Chill zooms off with speeds Jack didn't know Big Chill could reach. Carrying Jack and Gwen. As Gwendolyn followed Future Big Chill, the Galactic Enforcers proceeded to deal with Animo accordingly.

The Galactic enforcers approach Dr. Animo, who makes them believe he's beaten. "Yes, you caught me now. There's nothing I can do. Hm-hmm." He looked at the chamber to his left. It was labeled VX-0001.

Meanwhile...

Future Big Chill flew over the city, still having Jack and Gwen in his hands. He didn't have time to waste, so he took to the air to get to his headquarters.

Jack asked his future self what was going on, not expecting to get an answer out of him. "So, Animo's been around this whole time?"

"He escaped a few years back." Future Big Chill responded. "I wasn't sure if he was going to show his ugly face again. But now it looks like he won't be a problem anymore."

"What about Vilgax?" Asked Gwen.

Future Big Chill had less than fond memories of Vilgax."Last I saw of him, I left him in pieces. It wasn't pretty for anyone. 'Nuff said."

Jack started seeing his future self like he did Arcee when they first met, and that wasn't a good thing. "Whoa. I really need to lighten up."

"Kid, what you gotta do is just enjoy your illusion of being like Optimus, all fair and just and all that Primely crap. Trust me, you don't got that long."

Gwen was surprised at how much of an anti hero Jack might become. "I never thought I'd hear Jack bad mouth Optimus."

Back at Fort DNA-X...

Gavan had left the scene, leaving the task of bringing Animo in to the Galactic Enforcers. As they removed Animo's bindings, he released a gas from a vent on his chest that knocks them unconscious. He walks up to the chamber he was next to and tore it open. Its contents are the mangled remains of Vilgax. Animo shoots the remains with a red beam.

"Mister Vilgax. So nice you could rejoin me." Animo was about to revive Jack 10,000's greatest enemy.

At Jack 10,000's HQ...

Future Big Chill entered a building that was a tower with a much larger Omnitrix dial shaped upper section.

Jack thought that this place was way better than what the Autobots have. "Whoa! This is my headquarters? Awesome! I must chill out here a lot."

Big Chill turned into XLR8 after putting Jack and Gwen on the ground. "There's no time. I'm always patrolling the planet. Thus, Jack has no need to hang out here." Future XLR8 bolted over to a scanner and checked it. He looked over his shoulder and saw that Jack was about to speak up. "And before you ask, no, the 'bots don't hang here either."

"Okay, tell me I didn't just say 'thus'. Seriously, don't I have any fun anymore?"

Future XLR8 zipped back over to Jack and Gwen. "Like I said. You'll learn soon enough. Being me is not about fun. Now, wait here for Gwendolyn. And don't touch a thing!" Future XLR8 ordered. He dashed off to the control panel.

Jack noticed a hover board on one of the walls. "Hey look!"

"He said not to touch anything." Gwen didn't want the future Jack to do anything harsh to them.

"Why should I listen to me when I'm like that?" Jack activated the hoverboard. "Awsome!" Jack got on the hoverboard and flew around the room. "Yeah! Woo-hoo! Whoa! Hah-hah!" Jack flew towards Gwen, almost hitting her. "Guess I should've told her to duck, huh?"

Gwendolyn entered the room and saw that while Jack was having fun, Jack 10,000 was still being a stick in the mud.

"Get off that board now."

"What? I don't even smile when I mess with Gwen anymore?" Jack scoffed. "You're even worse than I thought!" Jack spun around in in place on the hoverboard. "Cool move, huh? Wanna race?"

XLR8 snatched the hoverboard from out from under Jack's feet, causing him to fall. "No! Those days are over."

Jack had had enough of his future self's negativity. "Well, what I'm over is being a hero if this is how I turn out! I am such a cunt! You make Arcee seem friendly."

"Arcee? Haven't thought about her for years. I moved on, she didn't."

That got Jack really mad. He was about to yell at his future self about how their personalities, are completely different, but the argument was avoided when an alert went off.

"Danger alert. Sector 1-A centric." A computer's voice said. "Danger alert. Sector 1-A centric." It repeated.

Jack, despite what his future self had said still wanted to help. "What is it?"

"My business, not yours! Get the portal open and get them home!" Ordered Future XLR8 before he dashed off.

Jack crossed his arms in defiance. "Well, I'm not going. You brought me here for a reason, and I bet it's what's going on in Sector 1-A centric." He realized he didn't know where F. XLR8 went. "Is it far away?"

"It's 61 stories below us." Gwendolyn realized what's down there. She gasped. "The Null Void Projector!"

In the Null Void Projector room...

Animo worked on activating the machine.

Future XLR8 zoomed into the large room in front of Animo and then transformed into Diamondhead. His hands transform into blades. Future Diamondhead prepared to fight the gorilla bodied madman. "It ends now, Animo!"

Vilgax stepped out of the shadows. "Oh, but it's only just beginning."

Jack 10,000 was shocked to see his foe Vilgax who now had an upgraded appearance. Gone were the cybernetics he had when Jack was sixteen, as well as the armors that he had twenty years ago, now Vilgax was a biologically enhanced tyrant. "Vilgax!"

Vilgax lunged at his foe in an effort to keep him busy while Animo proceeded to finish opening the Null Void portal. Vilgax tossed F. Diamondhead into the wall. The petrosapien's shoulder spikes keeping him lodged in the wall, making Diamondhead unable to dodge Vilgax's next punch.

As Animo approached the control pad, he was suddenly hit by several magical blasts.

"Animo's trying to open the Null Void Chamber."

"And free everyone me, mom, and grandpa ever captured."

"More than just that, everyone every plumber captured." Gwendolyne informed Jack of what was at stake.

Jack then noticed the alien that tried to squash his mom, who right now was fighting F. Diamondhead. "Vilgax? He's mine. Take Animo!" He flew over to help his future self while on the hoverboard that he got from the main level of the base.

Gwen and Gwendolyne both grinned. "With pleasure."

Before he got to within striking distance, Jack activated the Omnitrix. He tries selecting Jackviktor, but ended up as Upgrade.

"Ugh! Man." Groaned Upgrade.

Future Diamondhead got blasted out of the building by Vilgax. He tumbles over the edge, but manages to hang on. As Vilgax stepped forward, he is rammed by Upgrade, who had merged with the hoverboard, making it look like a rocket shaped surfboard.

Upgrade unmerged from the hoverboard, making it fly towards Vilgax. "A-hah! Take that!" Vilgax shattered the hoverboard easily as Upgrade landed.

Future Diamondhead climbed up from where he hung. "Get outta here!" He ordered his younger self when he saw that he was putting his existence in danger.

"When are you gonna get it through your thick skull? If this is your fight, it's my fight too."

Future Diamondhead begrudgingly allowed Jack to help. "Well then, this might help." He presses the Omnitrix symbol and rotated it to input the code 01001110 01100110 and changed Upgrade into Big Chill.

"Big Chill? Nice." Jack was glad to have one of his favorite forms back.

Future Diamondhead turned into Wildmutt, who was larger than his past self and had stripes along his head and back and had a tail. The two Jacks prepared to face off against their foe.

Meanwhile, back in the Null Void Chamber, the two Gwens were facing off against Animo. The Null Void Projector had begun to open, and the tentacled Null Guardians were attempting to escape through the opening.

Gwendolyne shot fire at Animo, who managed to avoid her attack. Gwen tried to side kick Animo, but the enhanced villian ducked, making her land on the floor. The sixteen year old ran up to Animo, jumped and spin kicked Animo, but the villain blocked her with his body's arms.

"You won't keep me away for long!" Animo believed he would finally achieve victory at long last.

Outside...

Future Wildmutt got slammed into the floor. Big Chill flew at Vilgax, turning intanible and flying through him, freezing him. The ice proved to be a temporary hold as Vilgax broke through it. Vilgax grabbed Big Chill, who had turned himself tangible and slammed him into the ground. Vilgax's left fist pulse with red sparks of energy as he prepared to deliver the blow that would assure him victory in both the past and the future, however, Big Chill got out of the way right before the punch made contact. Future Wildmutt became Swampfire, who looked like he 'bloomed' and unleashed a stream of flames at Vilgax. But Vilgax easily blocked the attack and ran through the smoke cloud and punched Future Swampfire into the air. Future Swampfire became Stinkfly, who had longer eye stalks, a larger stinger tail, and larger front legs. He spat slime, which the villain dodges. He then ensnared Future Stinkfly with an extending tendril that came from his right wrist. It wraps around Future Stinkfly's tail.

"You think you can destroy me?" He hurled Future Stinkfly against the wall. Future Stinkfly transformed into XLR8. "I analyzed every one of your aliens." As Future XLR8 dashed towards Vilgax in a Z pattern, Vilgax fired several organic bombs from this right forearm. XLR8 got caught in the explosions. "Animo programmed their moves into my new DNA." Future XLR8 turned into Four Arms, but Vilgax grabbed him by the head and held him down. "Nothing you can do will surprise me anymore!"

Big Chill emerged from behind Vilgax. He turned his arm intangible and struck Vilgax, but Vilgax knocked him away and ensnared him with his tendril.

"Get your claws off my grandson!" The three battling aliens recognized that voice as Max, but it wasn't him who took the next shot. Vilgax was blasted backwards. The Rust Bucket showed up, with a woman in heavy duty armor standing in the open door, holding a smoking gun. The armor resembled a heavily armored stormtrooper, but had grey accents as opposed to black. The helmet opened up to show who was underneath. A woman that Big Chill recognized, despite the older features.

"Mom?! Is that you?" Big Chill couldn't believe what was going on. "Help the Gwens. They're by the Null Void."

Old June gave a thumbs-up. She turned to face the driver of the Rust Bucket. "Null Void chamber dad." June's armor's helmet closed up as the Rust Bucket took off.

Vilgax suddenly comes from behind, jumping over the edge, taking the two Jacks with him. All of them plummeted towards the ground, the crowd at the bottom dispersed as they got closer. The resulting impacts creates an enormous crater.

Back to Gwen...

Gwen back flips to avoid being grabbed by Animo.

"You can't protect the Null Void and yourselves at the same time!" Animo gloated, thinking this would be simple.

Gwendlolyne flew up from behind Animo. "Oh yeah? Meena Goh!" Gwendolyn launched a fiery attack at Amino, but the mad doctor merely avoided it by stepping to the side. Gwen kicks the jar that his head was in, knocking him back. Animo climbed up the wall and jumped at Gwendolyn, punching her and knocking her out of the air. Gwen jumped at Animo, but he grabbed her and threw her down.

Just as Animo was about to finish off Gwen, an extending arm yanked her out of the way as the mad doctor slams the ground. The mechanical arm is revealed to belong to Old Max.

"When did you get that?"

"Long story, a lot can happen in 20 years. In short, same day June got that." Max said as a power armored June walked up with a new weapon, one that resembled the gun that Rojo used in her first encounter with Jack. Max transformed his arm into a blaster. "Come on. Let's show him what we Tennysons are made of." They charged toward Animo.

Down below, in the streets...

Big Chill and Future Four Arms climb out of the smoldering crater. Big Chill decided to lecture his future self. "He may know how all your aliens fight. But does he know what Jack Tennyson can do? I just hope after all this time, you haven't forgotten too."

A bomb was launched at them, blasting them backwards. Vilgax emerged from the smoke. "You're finished! Both of you!" Vilgax, not showing any sign of conceding, informed his foes of their destruction.

As Big Chill stood up, a green light flashed behind him.

Jack 10,000, who looked like Jack for the most part except he was more muscular, a bit taller and had a beard that was kept at a respectable length. "You know, maybe I'm right. Maybe it's time I did start fighting like you."

Vilgax scoffed when he saw his enemy's true form as the one that Jack 10,000 chose. "Your weak human form! What a novelty! Are you finally ready to surrender?"

"Actually, I was getting ready to do this the old-fashioned way." He turned Big Chill into Diamondhead. "Alright Jack, follow my lead."

Jack 10,000 got on a hoverboard, and flew at Vilgax, dodging the titan's strike and began the process of tormenting Vilgax into chasing after him.

Diamondhead tried to punch Vilgax, but the tyrant managed to jump to get out of the way.

Jack 10,000 made another pass at Vilgax, this time jumping off the hoverboard and over the biologically enhanced villain. Jack made several additional passes and all of which Vilgax swung and missed.

"If this is your attempt to stop me, it's pathetic! And pointless!" Jack 10,000 flew away from Vilgax, getting the latter to pursue him through the city.

Vilgax continued the pursuit of his foe. Once Jack 10,000 had reached a giant water pool, he jumps off the board as Vilgax smashed it. Jack 10,000 turned into Spitter and spewed slime at Vilgax. Diamondhead slammed his fists on the ground and created a wall of crystals to knock Vilgax into the pool.

Spitter then becomes a Polar Manzardill that was named Artiguana and used its freezing breath on the pool, trapping the Vilgax inside before he can escape.

"Hey, what do you call this guy?" Asked Diamondhead when he saw this new form.

"I don't name..." He decided that now he was going to see if he could go back to having fun being a hero like he used to do. "Uh, I don't know, Absolute Zero?"

"Boring!" Diamondhead thought of a name. "How about... Arctiguana?"

"Cool." Artiguana said but before he could say anything more, the ice started to crack. To make matters worse, the Omnitrix timed out, reverting Jack back to normal. Artiguana turned back into Jack 10,000. "Should've known ice wouldn't hold him. Jack, you wanna get a taste of what's to come?"

"Uh, sure, I guess?"

Jack 10,000 tapped the dial on the Ultimatrix and a hologram popped up. Jack 10,000 rotated it until he got to Swampfire. He slammed the dial down and announced: "Swampfire!"

"That's it?"

"Nope. This is." Future Swampfire tapped the dial on his chest. "Ultimate Swampfire!" Swampfire became more tree like as his body was now made out of wood. On his back was a shell filled with something blue. Three smaller shells were on his arms.

"Woah! It's just like what happened with Animo when his ray hit Wildmutt. But how?"

"They don't call it the Ultimatrix for nothing. Now stand back, things are about to really heat up here." Jack nodded and got behind Swampfire's evolved form. The moment Vilgax emerged from the water was when U. Swampfire unleashed a massive blue blast of energy that evaporated all the water that was in the pool. It also managed to knock out Vilgax.

U. Swampfire turned back into regular Swampfire, who went back to being Jack 10,000. He walked up to his younger self. "About Arcee, I think about her every night. After what happened, I've been avoiding her to keep her safe."

"She can handle herself." Jack assured the older him.

"When you, I, we fought Hakaider, Arcee almost died. The same thing happened twenty years ago to someone else I cared about."

"But what about Arcee? Where is she? How is she?"

"She's doing fine, working with the Plumbers, but don't tell her when you get back, okay?" Jack 10k held out his hand.

"Okay." The two Jacks shook hands.

"Now, I believe that we still have one more throwback villain to deal with before we can send you and Gwen home."

Back at the Null Void Chamber...

"Twista Combititus!" Gwendolyn chanted, which empowered her past self. She flung her at Animo. "Interdamoto Laborator!" Gwendolyn's eyes glowd bright pinkish magenta before she fired a magical blast at Animo, causing an the explosion sends him flying through the air. Towards June, who punched him and with the enhanced strength of her armor, sent him soaring towards old Max, who managed to finish off the mad doctor by delivering an uppercut, which knocked out Animo's body. In response, Animo caused his head to unscrew from his ape body in an attempt to get away.

Animo's head tried to escape, but Gwen held him down by standing on one of its tendrils. "Where do you think you're going?" Gwen mocked the bodiless villain.

Old Max shut down the Null Void Projector, which sealed all the captured beings inside.

"By the way, that black belt you were wondering about? You got it years ago. And it's come in handy many times.

Later, Omnitrix HQ...

Jack, Jack 10,000, Gwen, and Gwendolyn all cheered in unison: "Happy Birthday, Grandpa!"

"Well, thanks. Having you all here is the best 87th birthday present I could ever have."

"It was June's idea." Gwen gave the armored woman the credit of coming up with the idea.

"Yeah, quick question, what's up with the robot body?"

"It's not my body." The back of the armor opened up and out came june, who wore what she normally did. Jack noticed that she had metal legs. "It's something some of the 'Storyteller's friends from the BOS hooked me up with."

"The BOS? Storyteller? Huh?"

"Don't worry about that, you'll find out eventually. All that matters now is that everything's back to normal, relatively speaking." June gave the younger version of her son a tight hug. She tried to do the same with Jack 10,000, but he vocally resisted.

"No no, not the hugging, I'm against the hugging, oh who am I kidding?" Jack 10,000 hugged his mom back.

"So, think you could catch me up on the rest of the aliens I have left to unlock?" Jack wanted to see if his future self was in a better mood than before, which he was.

"Sorry, but you're gonna have to find out that for yourself, I know I did."

A holographic screen floated by. On it was Ultimos "Sorry, Jack. Danger Alert! The Nuevo Circus Freaks are in Quadrant 92-K!"

Jack 10,000 looked at the people in the room with him. "Hey, can't you guys see it's my Grandpa's birthday? Today's the day I spend time with my family. You handle it." He blew a noisemaker.

Ultimos was shocked that Jack was letting them handle this one. "Really? I mean, of course! Ultimos out." The screen cut back.

Gwen realised why she and Jack were brought to the Future. "The crisis was never Vilgax or Animo, was it? Your Jack just needed a major attitude adjustment, huh?"

Gwendolyn nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I couldn't have Grandpa celebrate his 87th birthday without him. Look, Gwen... I know your Jack can be a major pain in the rear at times, but enjoy him while you can."

"So, are you gonna let me keep Big Chill?" Asked Jack.

"Sure, why not? He always was my favorite." Jack 10,000 was planning on doing a bit more than just spend time with his family. "Plus I don't remember how I unlocked him, so it might as well be me."

The time portal opened.

"Now, come on. The portal's ready. And there's another birthday party you guys gotta get to."

Before Jack went back to the past, he had one last thing he wanted to discuss with his future self. "Wait! You never told me the secrets of the watch! How I don't have to go Jack!"

Jack 10,000 smiled. "Trust me: you're gonna want to go Jack. Thanks for making me realize that. Oh, here: Take this." He handed Jack a cube.

"What is it?"

"Something I should've gotten grandpa 23 years ago."

Gwendolyn didn't want to interrupt the touching moment. "Guys, it's closing."

"See ya!" Gwen stepped through the portal.

"And I guess we're gonna be ya!" Jack waved goodbye. Before he stepped though, he had one final thing to say to Jack 10,000. "Say hi to Arcee for me."

When the past Gwen and Jack left, Jack 10,000 held down the dial on the Ultimatrix. "Rook, hate to ask you, but do you still have Arcee's number?"

"I kept her comm link frequency archived in the event that you decide to get out of your funk." The voice of Jack 10,000's longtime ally said. "But not that I am not glad that you have decided to return her calls, but why do you ask now, as opposed to the five hundred concerned messages I have received from your old partner?"

"Well old friend, I think I'm gonna take my own advice and stop closing myself off to others and try to look on the bright side of life if you know what I mean."

Twenty three years ago...

Back in the present time, Max and Kevin return with the firewood, but Max's grandkids are just not around.

"Jack? Gwen?"

From behind them, Jack and Gwen emerged from the time portal.

Jack and Gwen both shouted: "SURPRISE!"

Gwen ran up to max and hugged him. "Grandpa!"

Jack pressed a button on the cube, activating it. The cube revealed itself to be a birthday cake.

"I - I mean, we—got you a cake. Happy Birthday, Grandpa. Woo-hoo!" Jack, Gwen, Kevin, and Max went over to the picnic table. "Make a wish, Grandpa!"

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter end.
> 
> Parts of this chapter I really had fun writing. FYI the fact that June uses power armor is a Fallout 4 allusion, both to the T-60 power armor as well as Proctor Ingram. And yes, the BOS is the Brotherhood of Steel. I have an interesting idea as to how they'll play a part. And they'll be the good guys in this world. But as a friend of Jack 10,000 says, that is a story for another day.


	31. Old Friend

Somewhere in the Arctic circle(about a week ago)...

Two snowmobilers were doing the winter version of dune bashing, going over hills of ice. Without looking, one of them was heading towards a large piece of metal. He made a quick sharp turn to try to avoid hitting the object, but was thrown off his vehicle. He landed in a snow drift. He groaned as he got up. Suddenly, the ground that he stood on began to shake and crack. The ice broke and the man fell into a pit, but not a deep one. This one was at most ten feet deep. When his buddy came over, he laughed when he saw his friend covered in snow. The first snowmobiler brushed off the white powder and saw three metal cylinders. The second man slid into the pit and followed his buddy, who walked over to the cylinders and saw a something sticking out of the snow. It was circular piece of metal that was on a bent pole. One of them dusted the snow off of one of the pods, revealing that underneath, it was made out of greenish blue metal and had a murk yellow slit of what might've been glass. The glass emitted light and the pod opened up, revealing what, or more likely who was inside of the pod. It was an alien woman one with green scales, light purple eyes, and tentacles on her head in a manner similar to the Twi'leks from star wars. The woman awoke the moment the pod was opened and stepped out onto the ice, terrifying the two humans who unintentionally freed her. They ran away from her, climbed out of the pit and got on the snowmobile that wasn't flipped over and drove away as fast as they could.

The alien woman realized she was missing something. Her three eyes glowed purple. "The Omnitrix." F**k.

St Louis Missouri...

Miko Nakadai had taken Kevin's place on the trip and was spending time with Jack and his family. She was flying a kite in a park. She was running through the field as he kite soared, but it suddenly came crashing down when it hit a moth, but not any ordinary moth. It hit Jack's recently re-unlocked form known as Big Chill.

"Jack!" Miko shouted.

"Sorry." Big Chill floated back down to the ground. He folded up his wings to show that their coloring had changed, they were now white with black and grey spots on them. "Mind if I help out?" He picked up the kite string and was going to give it back to Miko, but he unfolded his wings and suddenly flew up. "Sike!" He was up in the air and was flying a kite while he himself was flying.

"I'm telling your grandpa!" Miko threatened.

"You want it? Come up here and get it."

Gwen, who was jogging around the park saw that while Big Chill kept Miko's kite from her, the Necrofriggian was staying merely a few inches above her. "Need some help?" Miko nodded. Gwen looked through her book of spells. She found one that would ground Jack. "Plures parvis fragile."

Big Chill was hit by a bolt of lightning that came out of nowhere. He twitched before falling to the ground. Big Chill dropped the kite and took off before his hit the ground and flew away as another bolt of lightning hit him. He hid in a tree before he was hit by another one. A bolt hit the limb he sat on, making him fall to the ground as the Omnitrix timed out, reverting him back to Jack.

"Not cool." Jack said as he sat up and rubbed his back. While Miko and Gwen laughed at him, Jack looked over his shoulder and saw that he was about to get zapped again. This time, his clothes were singed. Miko was rolling in the grass laughing at Jack as he walked over to the bench that Gwen sat at.

"Hey grandpa, check this out." Gwen said as she laughed. She saw looked behind her to see that Max was watching an elderly couple walk through the park.

"Really Gwen, a bug zapper spell?" Jack fumed as he took off his burnt jacket and tossed it in the trash. "You shouldn't be fooling around with you powers. Honestly, I thought you were supposed to be the mature one?" Jack, unlike Gwen didn't notice how Max looked at the old couple saddly.

"Jack, your granddad seems pretty bummed." Even Miko, who's usually the most oblivious, noticed that Max was probably depressed.

"Really?" Jack walked over to his grandfather. He placed his hand on Max's shoulder. "Hey grandpa, what's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing. I'm fine. I just need a little time to myself, that's all."

Gwen grabbed onto Jack's arm. "No problem, we'll be over by the pond." She pulled Jack away while Miko laughed.

"Ow! Hey! That hurts!" Jack moaned as he was tugged.

Gwen, Jack, and Miko sat on a hill that was facing a pond.

"What's wrong with you? Besides the fact that you perform spells and do all kinds of magic stuff."

"Jack, my mom told me that grandpa and grandma got engaged in St Louis."

"So? My dad proposed to my mom in Alamo, and she doesn't get teary eyed."

"And people call me the insensitive one." Miko rolled her eyes before tapping on Jack's head. "So being here reminds him of you guys' grandma. He's probably feeling lonely."

"Shows how much you know. How can grandpa be lonely when we've been spending time with him?"

"Wow Jack, you're even more clueless than Ben sometimes." Said Gwen who face palmed after sitting up.

The three friends heard what sounded like a child screaming. The all stood up and ran up the hill that they had been lying on and saw a bunch of people and their kids running from the green scaled alien from the Arctic. She was looking for something.

Jack ran down the hill towards her. "Hey! What's the big idea scaring the kids?!" Jack shouted. The alien woman turned to face Jack. She saw on his wrist the Omnitrix. She hissed before her eyes glowed purple. Jack was surrounded by a purple aura and was lifted off of the ground.

She took two steps forward. "The Omnitrix! Where did you get it?!" She angrily asked Jack. "Answer me."

"Yeah, that's a long story, but the short answer is," Jack activated the Omnitrix and slammed down the dial after he selected Heatblast. "it doesn't matter, 'cause you ain't getting your scaly hands on it lizard lips."

Heatblast fired a massive beam of fire at the alien. When the beam hit the ground, there was a massive amount of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the alien woman was gone. "Hey, where'd she go?" Asked Heatblast who had fallen to the ground. The structures on the playground had the same purple aura around them before they were taken apart and used as projectiles that were launched at Heatblast by alien who wants the Omnitrix number seven.

Heatblast fired a stream of flames at the debris, burning the wood and melting the metal and plastic. However, the alien telekinetically ripped of the top of a fire hydrant and manipulated the stream of water so that it would hit Heatblast, tossing him back after putting out his flames.

"Hello Jack, rescue time's over, go fry the bad guy." Miko said after she ran up to Jack.

"Easy for you to say. I'm soaked. I can't even get a spark."

When the alien woman got twenty feet from Jack, a blue blaster bolt hit near her, causing her to jump to avoid the blast. She managed to land on her feet.

"That was your only warning shot." Max, who was wearing the suit he wore in June's flashback from way back in chapter 13, said. "Now turn around, slowly." He had his still smoking blaster aimed at the alien that attacked his grandson.

"That voice." She knew who it was. "Max?"

"Xylene?" Max lowered his blaster. "Is that you?"

"Uh, did I miss something?" Asked Heatblast as he came walked up with Gwen and Miko.

"Are these youths with you?" Asked Xylene. Max nodded.

Back in the arctic...

The two guys who found Xylene's ship came back with someone to try to prove that they found an alien. The broken snowmobile was still there, as all of the wreckage.

"Huh." The guy that they brought back with them said. "I don's see any big lizard. All I see is a bunch of junk."

The ground started to shake. From out of the snow came a robot that was definitely one of Vilgax's, but unlike his regular hover drones, this one had a more humanoid looking head with two 'eyes'. The guys who came to the crash site turned and ran, screaming as they ran out of the pit. They got on their snowmobiles and drove away.

The robot paid them no mind. It approached the broken snowmobile and connected to it with a black cable of some sort. It began ripping apart the snowmobile and adding the parts onto itself. As it exited the pit and began to head south, it hit its leg against something. It found a small, cat sized object that had two dark blue eyes and a mouth full of blades. It ripped the object apart and added pieces onto itself as well. Doing the same with all the other scraplets that, just over half a year ago, threatened to destroy the Autobots' base. Wow, what're the odds that this ship crashed right where the Autobots disposed of the Scraplets?

Back in a place that's actually warm...

Max, Xylene, Gwen, Miko, and Jack were at the campsite where the Rust Bucket was parked for the night. In front of the teens was a bowl of food that most humans wouldn't consider edible.

Jack was suspicious about her, as was Miko, but the Japanese girl was more vocal about it. "She's been here six hours, and the only thing she said to us was to tell Jack to give her the Omnitrix. What? Are we invisible to her?"

"Don't take it so personally." Gwen said. "They're just catching up." She turned to face Xylene. "So, how'd you two meet?"

Max answered Gwen's question for his friend. "Xylene and I go way back to my first days in the plumbers." Xylene wrapped one of her head tentacles around Max's arm, which was on her shoulder. "We worked a lot together in those early years."

Xylene had a smile on her face. "You even made me an honorary Plumbette."

Jack and Gwen had raised eyebrows when they heard that, while Miko could barely contain herself. "Excuse me for a moment." Said Miko, who dumped the contents of her bowl onto the ground before walking into the woods. When she was out of view, the sound of her laughing was heard.

Xylene used her long blue tongue to scoop up the 'food' that Max made for her, his grandkids, and Miko. "Mmmm. Delicious." She wiped her lips with a napkin. Jack looked ready to throw up when he saw Xylene eat something with live bugs in it.

"Well, it's nice to have somebody around here who appreciates my cooking."

"Bet Raf would like this." Jack said under his breath. ["I wonder..." I said with a devious smile forming on my face.]

"Jack, I'm surprised you don't have a taste of this stuff, seeing as June always wanted more of whatever Max cooked up."

Jack was surprised when he found out that Xylene knew his mom. "Wait, how do you know my mom?"

Xylene chuckled. "June and I were close."

"Yeah, I remember her saying she wanted to be like you when she was older. But enough about us, what brings you back to Earth after all this time Xylene?" Max asked.

"The Omnitrix." Xylene pointed at Jack's wrist.

"Well, that certainly isn't a shocker." Jack said, acting passive aggressive. "She's only interested in the watch."

"Now calm down Jack." Max tried to defuse the situation. "Xylene, tell him that's not true."

"Why won't I be interested in the Omnitrix? I'm the one who sent it to Earth."

"I was transporting the Omnitrix to Earth when I was attacked by our old friend..." Xylene began.

Flashback...

In the ship that was being pursued by Vilgax's warship, Xylene aimed at the command bridge and fired a beam of plasma at the bridge, which wounded Vilgax, which placed him in intensive care. Xylene's ship's defences tried to shoot down the drones that the crippled warship deployed, but a few got past the guns and managed to get in. Xylene exited the cockpit and ran through an Omnitrix dial shaped door and saw two of the drones in the corridor outside. Xylene used her powers to break one of the drones in half and destroyed the control panel that caused the door to close, which would buy her some time while the drones tried to get through.

"Realizing I could no longer protect the Omnitrix from Vilgax," Xylene took the Omnitrix, which at this point was still in its more discrete shape. "I place it in a special pod," Xylene gasped when she saw that the drone was cutting through the door. "and jettisoned it to the planet below for safe keeping."

Whereas the Omnitrix landed in Yosemite national park, Xylene's ship crashed in the Arctic. "When I crashed, my body fell into a hibernative state, until about a week ago."

Flashback end...

"Well, the good news is that Vilgax is no longer a problem, thanks to Jack and June, he's dealt with for good."

Xylene looked at Jack, who was acting all proud. She then looked back at Max. "Yes, and I'm sure you're just being modest about your role."

"Sorry, I wasn't there, June told me after the fact."

"June? Why isn't she here?" Asked Xylene.

Before Max could answer his friend, Jack interrupted.

"So since Vilgax has been taken care of, I guess you don't need to stick around on our little planet." Xylene turned to face Jack with a scowl on her face.

"Jackson, that's hardly polite." Max scolded his grandson.

Xylene held up a device that looked like a miniature purple lava lamp. It sent out a signal. "My transportation will be on its way shortly."

Max was glad that Xylene was staying a bit longer. "In the meantime, you'll be our guest. So you guys don't mind cleaning up?" Asked Max as he and Xylene went out into the woods.

"I don't like her." Jack said, glaring at the new arrival.

"Really? And why's that?"

"The last two times someone new showed up, Phi turned out to be evil and Smokescreen is a kiss up. I don't trust her is all." Jack followed his grandfather and Xylene.

"Don't trust who?" Miko asked as she walked out of the woods.

"Xylene." Gwen said as Jack got out of sight. "Wait, hold on! These dishes aren't going to clean themselves!" She showed as Jack activated the Omnitrix. "Or will they?" Gwen got out her spell book. MIko took a seat on the table and hid under it when she saw that Gwen was going to do magic.

Later...

Deep in the woods, Max and Xylene walked through the forest. "The kids, I never thought you'd turn out to be the domestic type. Don't you miss your Plumber days?" She asked.

Max said with a smile. "Things did get rather dull, until Prime showed up about a decade ago. And every once in awhile, I get to help out Jack with whatever comes his way, seeing as you dropped that little present in their laps."

"You haven't aged at all since I last saw you."

From a tree that was behind Max, Wildvine emerged from it. He came out of the side that Xylene couldn't see him. His skin now looked like tree bark. "Ugh." The Florauna groaned quietly. "This tree is less sappy than them."

"Remember that night?" Xylene asked.

"How could I forget?" Max remembered the night Xylene left. She was about to get in a ship that looked exactly like the one that she used to transport the Omnitrix. She was going to investigate rumors of a DNA weapon. She offered Max the chance to come with her, but he declined, saying that he needed to take down Vilgax, with his reasoning being that he has a job to do on Earth, and that kidnapping June made it personal. But he said something to her that makes zero to negative sense. They'll always have Roswell. Xylene and Max kissed, which what we learn in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien made this seem strange, but I digress. Xylene entered her ship and took off.

Xylene grabbed Max's shoulders. "With Vilgax out of the picture, there's nothing keeping you here anymore. I could use your help out there."

"Oh, another tempting offer." Max scratched his chin.

Wildvine heard this and thought Max was going to leave. "He can't go, can he?"

Later, back at the campsite...

Jack came to see Miko and Gwen sweeping up bits of broken plates. Miko had an ice pack that she held to her forehead.

"Don't ask." Gwen said.

"Don't tell." Came Jack's response.

"So, what's up with your grandpa and Xylene?"

"I should've kicked her ass back to outer space back when I had the chance."

"Jack, this isn't like you, and besides, grandpa seems to like her, maybe we should give her a chance."

"No, I'm glad they like each other, but if she wants us to call her grandma lizard, then that's when I put my foot down."

The drone that used the snowmobile and the scraplets to build its body landed in front of the three.

Jack and Gwen gasped while Miko noticed something. "Hey, doesn't that thing look familiar?"

"It's one of Vilgax's robots." Jack said as the robot used two whip like tentacles to try to smash them. Jack pushed Miko out of the way as he and Gwen dove to avoid being hit. They got up and ran as the robot rotated to try to catch them. It opened a compartment on its main body and fired three missiles at them.

"Yeah, I know that it's one of Squidface's robot fiends, but look at it's arms, they're made out of scraplets."

"Wait, what?" Jack did a double take before the missiles hit the ground behind them, sending them flying. Jack, Miko, and Gwen weren't hurt, just sore from the landing. Jack got back up. "I don't care if it's made out of Cliffjumper, it's after the Omnitrix." Jack ran at the robot. "You want this?" Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Four Arms, which after he jumped, he transformed into that alien. "You gotta pry it from my four cold, dead hands."

Four Arms landed on the robot and began punching the robot.

Max and Xylene, having heard the explosion ran back to the campsite to see Four Arms engaging the robot.

"What in the world?" Max was dumbfounded when he saw the type of drone that his grandson was fighting.

Instead of explaining, Xylene decided to fight first, talk later. He eyes glowed purple as she flew over to Four Arms, who was busy beating the crap out of the drone.

"I can handle this, I don't need you help!" Shouted Four Arms, forgetting about the conversation he had with his future self not even a week ago. Four Arms was shaken around by the robot in an attempt to get him off of it. Xylene used her powers cause the ground beneath the drone to rise up, making it tip over, causing Four Arms to lose his grip and fall off. Before the robot could get back up, a blue laser beam hit the robot, sending it back a few yards. It was then hit by a red laser bolt. Max had fired the blue blast, while Miko, shot the red one from a gun that looked like the laser pistol from Fallout. Gwen looked through her book of spells.

"Elota objectia!" Gwen fired two bolts of magical energy out of the palm of her outstretched hand, both of which hit the robot.

Four Arms ran up to the robot and grabbed onto one of its tread legs and made an attempt to pull it off, but Xylene used her powers to pick up the robot and Four Arms and tossed the two of them at the Rust Bucket 2.

The robot started to take apart the Rust Bucket and added those parts onto itself.

"It's taking over the Rust Bucket!" Shouted Miko as the robot repaired its legs.

Now the robot was somehow even bigger than before. It had two fins on its 'shoulders', two large cannons on either side of its body that seemed to look like giant laser pointers, and two sets of treads beneath the cannons. It started heading in Miko, Xylene, Max, and Gwen's direction, but it couldn't quite reach them. Miko smiled when she saw Four Arms holding it back by grabbing onto one of its arms.

The robot turned its head and pointed a blaster at Four Arms. He looked up before it fired. "Scrap." The robot fired, destroying the Rust Bucket 2, and getting Four Arms to let go of it. It raised up its legs and fired a plasma cannon that was on one of its legs. It fired at the others, but missed. The four of them hid behind a large rock as the giant robot approached them, firing its plasma cannon at them.

Max had to take down the robot, and he got an idea how to do it. "Xylene!" He shouted. Xylene somehow knew what Max wanted her to do. She used her telekinetic powers to grab a propane tank that was on the side of the robot. Max took aim at the tank, but right as he pulled the trigger, Miko used her laser pistol to shoot the propane tank. Both shots hit the propane tank, causing it to explode. The robot was stunned.

Four Arms looked up and saw that the robot had stopped moving.

"We make a good team." Xylene said.

Max agreed with her. "Always did." As Four Arms proceeded to rip apart the robot, Max realized something was off. "Miko, where'd you get that gun?"

"I found it in the woods." Believe it or not, Miko was telling the truth.

Gwen was more than a bit skeptical. "Sure you did."

"No, I'm serious." She tossed the laser to Max. "Here, you can have it."

Four Arms ripped open the robot and started tearing bits out. Miko was taking pics of the carnage to show to Bulkhead.

When the robot was most likely dead, Four Arms approached his grandfather with a red monitor in his hands. "Sorry about the Rust Bucket grandpa. Guess I kinda got carried away."

"Yeah." Max took the monitor out of Four Arm's hands. "Maybe just a little." Four Arms had a guilty look on his face when his grandfather walked to the wreckage of the Rust Bucket 2, but it changed to one of rage when Xylene came into his field of vision.

The Omnitrix timed out, reverting Four Arms back to Jack. Max dropped the laser gun that Miko found. Jack ran over and picked it up. "Grandpa, you dropped thi- Hold on, I remember this."

Max placed the monitor on a table. He walked over to Jack and took the laser blaster out of his hands. "You do? It's probably one of mine."

"No, it's not yours grandpa, it's Wash's."

"Who's Wash?"

"Somebody I met in Canterbury Commons. He and I stopped this crazy chick that called herself the Antagonizer. I made something kinda like this for him as Grey Matter to use against her army of ants. So if this is Wash's that means Wash found a way to make more."

"Okay, could you please explain that whole incident, while we put the Rust Bucket back together?" Asked Max.

Little did they know that the robot was not as dead as they thought.

Later...

Max put one of the headlights back in the slot. He screwed it in. "Guess that Mechadroid was the same one the fell to Earth with you."

Xylene levitated one of the Rust Bucket's doors

"But it seems to be doing this whole mergey thing. The other one couldn't do that." Miko commented.

"These versions have been built with the ability to amalgamate mechanical devices to fulfil their programming, mainly to retrieve the Omnitrix." She walked over to the under reconstruction Rust Bucket 2.1. "You are sure that the Mechadroid was destroyed, aren't you?" She asked Jack, who was currently Diamondhead.

Diamondhead, who was currently fixing some of the Rust Bucket's wiring answered Xylene. "Yes I'm sure it was destroyed. Well, more like ninety eight percent sure." Diamondhead scoffed. "Give me a break." He said under his breath.

At the ranger station...

The Mechadroid made its way to an ATV, which it ripped apart and used those components to rebuild its body.

Back at the campsite...

As Max and Xylene worked on re installing the Roof, Diamondhead was trying to get two panels of the RV's walls to stay together, but was having a hard time.

Xylene looked at Diamondhead and was more than a bit frustrated. "If you wanted to be truly helpful. a glavonic mechamorph would've been more appropriate."

"First off, it Galvanic Mechamorph, and second, I tried to turn into Upgrade, but this damn watch never listens, and lastly, you're not my mom, so stop telling me what to do."

"Come on now Jack," Max said as he stood up. He brushed off his hands. "Xylene probably knows a thing or two about the Omnitrix, maybe you should listen to her."

"You're taking her side? I just met her."

"You're being irrational."

"Well, if you think I'm such a screw up, why'd you send the watch to me in the first place?"

"I didn't send you the Omnitrix. You found it before it reached its intended recipient."

"Oh, and who would that be?"

Xylene tried to remember who she was supposed to give it to, but found that that knowledge was blank. "It was either to Max, or to your mother."

"What?" Diamondhead couldn't believe what he just heard.

Xylene explained. "The pod containing it veered slightly off its intended course."

Upon hearing that, Diamondhead hung his head in shame as the dial beeped, which reverted him back to being Jack.

"I got the Omnitrix by mistake?" Jack was beginning to feel pretty depressed right about now.

"Of course. You didn't really believe that I would purposefully send the most powerful device in the universe to a hormonal teenager, did you? I was sending it to Max, or maybe June, honestly, that part of my memory is a blank.

"Guess it would make a lot more sense." Gwen reasoned. "Both grandpa and aunt June were Plumbers after all."

"Oh great. Next you're gonna tell me that Arcee was supposed to be found by someone else, and while you're at it, why don't you just take it back and you two can go cruise around the universe. See if I care!" Jack shouted as he walked away from the campsite.

Jack started running when he got into the woods.

"Jack!" Max was going to try to explain this to Jack, but after what Xylene just said, Jack was most likely not going to listen to him. "Gwen, go follow Jack."

Gwen ran into the forest after Jack.

Xylene walked over to Max. "Did I say something wrong?"

Miko climbed up the ladder and spoke with Xylene and Max. "Um, yeah, everything you said to Jack was wrong."

"Explain yourself child." Xylene asked.

"I might not know what goes on inside Jack's head, but I got the impression that he thought that he was meant to get the Omnitrix, like it was his destiny or something."

"So he was under the delusion that he was meant for something greater than what he was capable of?"

"Delusion?" Miko felt that calling Jack delusional was too harsh.

"I gotta agree with Miko on this one." Max said. "We all thought Jack could do more than what we thought possible for him."

"And the one time something like this happened to Jack, you go and ruin Jack's fun by saying he became a hero because he got delivered someone else's mail."

"Well, it's not my fault that Jack wanted to me different." Xylene defended. "I believe the fact that Jack has broke it justifies what I said."

"Xylene, Jack made a mistake, we all do."

With Jack...

Jack was sitting on the edge of a cliff. He was contemplating what Xylene said to him. 'So I was never meant to get this? I wasn't even the second or third choice.' Jack moped. 'So does that mean that Optimus considered giving the key to Ratchet or Arcee, and just gave it to me because I didn't know what it was?' Jack heard Gwen's footsteps. "Go away."

Gwen felt sorry for Jack. She sat down next to him. "So the watch wasn't meant for you. So what? You've done a pretty good job with it so far."

"Gwen, it's not just about the Omnitrix, don't you get it? She wants grandpa to go away with her just like before, only this time, there's nothing keeping him here."

"Jack, this isn't like you, this is how ten year old you would act."

"That's the point, I've only seen grandpa one other time since I was ten, and now that I get to spend time with him, he might decide to leave, just like my dad did."

"You've never said anything about you dad, what was he like?" Asked Gwen.

"How would I know? He left me and my mom when I was really little."

Back at the campsite...

Xylene and Max were almost done fixing the Rust Bucket 2. Miko had headed into the forest to look for Jack and Gwen.

Xylene, who had let what Max and Miko say about Jack sit in her head, spoke up. "I'm sorry Max. I must admit, these human children are a mystery to me. On my planet, one you hatch, you're on your own. Well, soon we won't have to worry about them."

There was a bright light shining on Max and Xylene. It was getting closer to them. They jumped off the RV before the mechadroid slammed into them. It landed on the ground. It now had a flood light on its chest and four arms that had wheels on the ends of them,

"The mechadroid!" It seems Jack didn't destroy it. It shined the floodlight on Max and Xylene. Xylene pushed Max out of the way before the Mechadroid could strike him. Instead, Xylene was hit and sent through several trees.

"Xylene!" Max shouted.

Jack, Gwen, and Miko heard this and ran back to the campsite. Somebody else heard this. It was a person wearing combat armor that covered all parts of the body, including the face.

Back at the campsite, the mechadroid tried to strike Max with its tire tipped legs, but Max dodged them all. Max rolled to get out of the mechadroid's reach and ran to where Xylene was.

Xylene collapsed before Max could get to her. The mechadroid had two of its front arms raised up. A panel opened and four black and red tendrils grabbed Max. The used the nanobots in his suit to attach Max to its body.

Jack, Gwen, and Miko entered the campsite and saw that Max had been captured.

"Noooo!" Jack shouted, he had to rescue his grandfather. The robot was about to fire at the trio, but several bullets hit its eyes.

"Need some help Jack?" A voice that Jack recognized asked.

"Wash?"

While Jack's head was turned away, the mechadroid took off, taking Max with him.

"No!" Jack was too late to save Max. "Grandpa!"

"That was your grandfather? I'm sorry Jack."

"Jack, care to introduce us to this friend of yours?" Asked Gwen.

"Fine, this is Wash, Mom, Raf, Arcee, and I met him a few weeks back in the Mojave desert. He knows about the Omnitrix and about the Autobots."

Wash removed his/her helmet. "Okay, would any of you care to explain what just happened?"

"Our grandpa is being taken to who knows where by this robot." Gwen explained. "Wait, how'd you get from the Mojave desert to St Louis?"

"I was abducted by aliens, and they weren't any of yours. They were these weird things that were yellowish brown and greyish purple, and had exposed brains and a single green eye. I escaped thanks to the help I got from a samurai, a cowboy, a girl from an alternate earth, a combat medic from the past of that girl's home planet, and a woman from this place called the Mojave wasteland. But enough about me. My question is who's that?" He pointed to Xylene.

Gwen spoke up. "One of grandpa's old friends."

"She looks hurt." Wash walked over to Xylene and injected something into her.

"What did you do?" Asked Miko.

"I just injected a stimpack into her system, she should be up and about soon enough."

Xylene rubbed her sore head as she stood up. "Uhg." She groaned.

"Okay, now that that's over, onto something more important. The mechadroid, you said you trashed it."

"We all thought it was destroyed." Xylene said. Wash tapped her shoulder. "Sorry, most of us thought it was destroyed. That doesn't matter now."

"It doesn't?" Jack asked.

Wash felt as though something didn't add up. "Wait, if that thing only wanted the Omnitrix, then why'd it kidnap your grandfather?"

"Because it knows I'll come and rescue him. It's a trap!"

"Exactly. That's why-" Xylene was interrupted by Jack.

"Look, I know you're gonna give us the whole 'The Omnitrix is more important than any single being lecture'."

"Well it is." She let Jack continue.

"But no way are we letting that living junk yard hurt him."

"I agree but-" Xylene was once again interrupted by Jack.

"So help us or get out of our way 'cause-" Xylene's eyes glowed purple as she lifted Jack up and slammed him into a tree, careful not to hurt him. She held in the air and made him stand at attention.

"Be quiet and listen." Xylene ordered. Wash was snickering at this. "You're not the only ones who care about Max." She explained. "If we work together, all five of us, we can save both him and the Omnitrix." She placed Jack back onto the ground. "Truce?" She held out her hand. Gwen, Miko, and Wash put their hands on top of Xylene's.

"Truce." Jack said.

"Time is crucial, as we stand here, it's collecting more and more items, becoming stronger for its final battle with us. Now, where would the mechadroid have access to the most mechanical items in this area?"

"St Louis is one of the largest river ports in the United States." Wash explained. "Meaning it's going to someplace where it'll have ready access to military hardware. So that means it's going to the docks."

Later, at the docks...

Jack flew around the stacks of shipping containers on the hoverboard that Tetrax gave him. He saw the mechadroid as it was attaching more parts to its body. It detected Jack and turned to face Jack, showing the teen that it was still using Max as a literal human shield. "Grandpa!" Jack shouted.

"Jack, go! This things got control of the nano tech in my plumber suit!" Max said as he struggled. The Mechadroid caused Max to fire a blue laser bolt at Jack, which he dodged. "Do whatever it takes to bring this thing down, even if that means bringing me with it!"

"Sorry grandpa, not an option." Jack held the Omnitrix out for the mechadroid to see. "Is this what you want? I'll swap ya straight up. My grandpa for the Omnitrix."

"Jack, don't do it!" Max warned his grandson before the Mechadroid flung four cables at Jack, which missed.

"Don't worry, we know what we're doing!"

"We?" Max realized that this was a rescue attempt.

Xylene burst through a warehouse door and flew at the Mechadroid. A hole was punched through one of the shipping containers. A set of metal hands made the hole bigger. Out of it stepped an armored humanoid that wore a suit of power armor that is called a T-45. Underneath the Armor was Wash.

Xylene flew by the Mechadroid before Wash used his laser rifle to shoot at its eyes. "Max, we must stop meeting like this." Said Xylene after she landed on one of the crates.

Gwen drove at the Mechadroid with a forklift, which the mechadroid made Max blast. The forklift crashed into a wooden crate.

"Gwen!" Jack shouted before running to go check on his cousin. The mechadroid grabbed Jack and lifted him up. It sent a painful electric shock through the human, making Jack writhe in pain. Xylene flew over to Jack as he tried to activate the Omnitrix. She used her powers to break apart the cables that held Jack, causing him to drop. Xylene flew down and caught Jack. The Mechadroid jumped down, but Wash ran over and punched it into a shipping crate. The mechadroid then shoved Wash away. Xylene flew over and began to remove the cables that restrained Max. She looked up and saw a crate that was being held up by a crane. She then got an idea to help even the fight. She used her powers to bring the crate down. She got Max off of the mechadroid before the crate crashed down. The crate opened when it hit the ground, revealing that inside the crate, there was an M1 Abrams tank in it, and Jesus Christ! For those of you who don't know, an M1 Abrams weighs in at a whopping sixty two tons, and the crane that held it showed no sign of collapsing, so yeah, that's probably that strongest crane in the world.

The mechadroid ripped apart the tank. It now had rocket launchers as well as the tank's main gun.

The mechadroid, did nothing as Jack, Xylene, Gwen, and Wash gasped when they saw what happened. The mechadroid then caused Max to flail around wildly, shooting laser beams around every which way.

Xylene and Jack ran behind cover.

"We have to destroy the original mechadroid to defeat it."

"Sounds like a job for Upgrade!" Xylene grabbed Jack's left wrist.

"I have a better idea, but you must trust me. Your grandfather's life depends on it."

Jack nodded. Xylene entered a code into the Omnitrix and transformed Jack into a new alien, one that was shaped gummy bear. It was green and wore a black suit with white on the outer side of its arms. The form's name was Upchuck.

"What's this one supposed to do?" Upchuck asked.

"You're going to eat it!" Xylene shouted with complete seriousness.

"Come again?"

"Literally eat it. That's this form's power."

"Well, now that you mention it, I am kinda hungry." Out from Upchuck's mouth came four light green tongues that stuck onto the side of a shipping container.

Max was pulled back onto the mechadroid. The robot wrapped around Max. While it did that, it tried to step on the forklift that Gwen drove, only to have her back up to avoid being crushed. It then fired four missiles at Wash, only to have Upchuck grabbed them with his tongues.

Wash saw the Omnitrix dial on Upchuck's left wrist. "Jack?" He asked.

"Yeah, it's me. Wash, I need you to throw me at the mechadroid." Wash tilted his helmeted head when he heard that. "Don't ask why, just do it!"

Wash grabbed Upchuck and tossed him at the mechadroid. He handed on the tank barrel and ran up it. Upchuck then tried to bite down on the Mechadroid's armor, but found that he couldn't bite down. He then tried using his tongues to try to grab onto it, but found that that didn't work. However, Upchuck refused to give up until he managed to grab onto a wheel and bring that into the pocket dimension known as Upchuck's stomach.(No, I am not making a joke. Upchuck's stomach literally is another dimension.) The Gourmand proceeded to eat several other bits of the robot.

"Now spit!" Xylene ordered.

Upchuck spat at the Mechadroid. Finding that whatever he ate in this form turned into an explosive projectile. "Awsome! Nuclear spit balls! I've got upchuck powers!" Upchuck then burped.

"And I thought Wildmutt was disgusting." Gwen groaned.

"I'll get Max. Let go of him!" Xylene began to process of freeing Max while Upchuck distracted the Mechadroid.

Upchuck ripped off parts of the Mechadroid and spat them out. The first piece of robot to be destroyed was the tank barrel.

"Jack hang on!" Gwen shouted as she drove the forklift at the mechadroid. The robot grabbed the small vehicle, but Gwen managed to jump out right as it was grabbed. Wash ran up and caught Gwen before placing her on the ground.

Upchuck then spat at the robot's head, which gave him access to the mechadroid's processor. "Time for dessert." He said before grabbing onto the head and eating it. Upchuck fell to the ground.

Xylene had gotten Max detached from the mechadroid before it collapsed to the ground and exploded.

Upchuck coughed before hacking up the head of the robot, which exploded seconds after it hit the ground.

"Way to go Jack." Max congratulated while Upchuck brushed his tongues the same way a cat licks its paws.

The Omnitrix timed out, reverting Upchuck into Jack. Jack stood up. "Yuck, bad robot. Got any mouthwash?" Jack burped, and a bolt came out.

"The 'bots are gonna love this!" Shouted Miko, who was nowhere to be found.

"Miko?" Asked Max as he looked around for her.

"I'm right in front of you." Suddenly, Miko appeared.

"What?"

"Stealth boy, Wash let me use it so I could film this."

"And who's Wash?"

"That'd be me."

"Hmm, power armor. Haven't seen that since my days in the plumbers."

"Max, my ship's here." Xylene said.

"Max? As in Max Tennyson? I've been looking for you." Wash handed Max what looked like cassette tapes. "I was told you could decode these."

"I'll get onto it as soon as I can."

Back at the campsite...

A ship had showed up. It looked like the one that Xylene used to transport the Omnitrix, but it was mostly silver and had purple accents.

Xylene stood in at the bottom of the boarding ramp. In front of her stood Jack, Gwen, and Max. Miko and Wash sat at the picnic table.

"I wanted to apologize for kinda acting like a jerk earlier, I guess I just didn't want grandpa to leave. But if you make him happy, then I'm happy."

"You're certainly a Tennyson, aren't you." Xylene said with a smile on her face. "Jack held out his arm that had the Omnitrix. "Take good care of that Jack. Vilgax isn't the only one interested in it. And try not to break it again."

"Well, you managed to impress another alien." Gwen said. She then turned to face Max. "Guess we should let grandpa say goodbye."

"Yeah, but to who?"

"You're not coming, are you?" Asked Xylene.

"It's a big galaxy out there, but right now, I have a promise that I made to my daughter that I plan on keeping." Max said.

As the engines to her ship activated, Xylene pulled Max into a kiss.

"D'aw." Gwen smile.

"Heh heh." Jack quietly chuckled as he snapped a picture with his phone. "Hello leverage."

Xylene walked up the boarding ramp. She turned to face Max. "We'll always have Rosewell." Xylene entered her ship before it took off.

When the ship was gone, Jack turned to face his grandfather. "I thought you were going to leave with her."

"Nah, you're not getting rid of me that easily Jack." Max smiled. "Come on, let's go."

Gwen and Jack turned to face one another. "Front seat!" They shouted. They ran into the Rust Bucket to see that Miko had beaten them inside. "Aw man!"

Max looked up into the sky and saw Xylene's ship leave the atmosphere. He had a smile on his face as he looked to the heavens.

Chapter end...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: Yeah, I had more reference to the Fallout series. Wash made a reappearance. What he described was the Fallout 3 add on Mothership Zeta, but his captors were the DNAliens who'll play a big part later. And for those who don't know, the people who helped him are as follows; Toshiro Kago is the Samurai, the 'cowboy' is known only as Paulson, the girl is Sally, the combat medic is named Elliott Tercorien, and the woman is Somah. And when Wash said alternate Earth, he didn't mean another dimension.


	32. Ditto

Somewhere...

Doctor Animo was speaking to what was most likely a group of animals.

"The time has come. Soon I, Doctor Aloysius Animo, will bring about a new world order." He said with his breath showing when he exhaled. "And they thought they could lock me away forever." The group of animals that Animo was speaking to was a bunch of Seagulls, and it seems that he's still in prison.

"Ha ha ha!" Laughed one of the guards. "You're not going anywhere Doctor Freakimo." The two guards that had watch Animo's descent into madness laughed as they walked away.

An additional seagull flew towards the island where the prison was located. It had something in its beak. It flew to Animo and landed on his hand. "Ignore them my pet, for you have been exceedingly loyal." The seagull dropped what it had in its beak into Animo's hand. It was carrying a computer chip. "Bringing me the components I need. One piece at a time." The seagull flew off of Animo's hand as he unzipped his orange prison jumpsuit. He had been rebuilding his transmodulator, and now that he had the final piece he was ready to escape. He placed on the helmet as he stepped forward. The seagulls that were on the ground scattered. "And now for your reward." He fired a red mutagenic beam at the seagull that had help him, giving it a more monstrous appearance. The seagull, features went from white to a dark grey. Its neck extended. Its beak became more deadly as it extended, ending in a black blade like tip. Below the neck, its body became bigger, much bigger than any of Jack's current aliens. It looked like the classic depiction of a pterosaur. Animo climbed on the back of his avian abomination. Several of the guards ran towards the monster in a futile attempt at stopping the escape. The mutated seagull took off, grabbing two of the guards.

"Put us down!" One of the guards yelled as the beast got higher and higher.

Animo had gleeful smile on his face. "With pleasure!" He commanded his mount to drop the two guards into the water. Hey, I wonder what Animo's planning on doing now that he's free. "And the first thing I plan to do, is visit that insufferable brat, Jack Darby!" He said with a scowl.

Somewhere on the coast of the the Atlantic Ocean...

The Tennyson and Miko were enjoying what was to them a slow day. Gwen sat in the shade of a beach umbrella reading her spell book, Miko was working on her tan, and Max was busy fixing a piece of technology that we find out later is a jet pack. All that's missing is Jack, who's currently nowhere to be found.

Gwen sighed. "Ah. It's so nice to finally get a little piece and quiet so that I can catch up on my summer reading."

"Same here." Miko agreed. "I finally have some time to work on my tan." She and Gwen fist bumped.

"I'm glad that you two are enjoying yourselves, but just remember to keep your guard down, you too Jack." Max removed his welding goggles and looked around for his grandson. Gwen also realized that something was up.

"Where's Jack?!" Gwen and Max asked each other. The saw people running away from the water. They looked towards the ocean and saw a green fin poking up from the surface. Rip Jaws burst out of the water and landed in a sandcastle. He was buried by the destroyed sand structure. While he was underneath the sand, the Omnitrix timed out, reverting him back to being Jack. Jack burst out of the sand and looked around.

"Hey, where'd everybody go?" Jack looked up and saw his grandfather and cousin looking down at him angrily. "What? The sharks are gone."

Later...

Jack was sitting on one of the beach chairs that he and the others had placed there things at.

"Come on, I was just having some fun."

"So were we." Max said with crossed arms.

"Only somehow we managed to do that without frightening innocent people half to death." Miko groaned.

"Yeah, well sorry if my idea of fun is different from you idea of fun."

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked.

"If I wanted to read or work on science projects, I'd asked Ratchet if I could've spent the summer at the base." Said Jack as he walked away from the trio. "And as I said, you won't have to worry about the sharks for a while."

Max, Gwen, and Miko looked at each other with confused expressions. They had no idea what Jack was talking about.

Later...

After screwing the final screw into place, Max had finished the repairs on the jetpack. Seconds later, Max's shoulder was hit by a blue ball, which made the old man drop the jetpack, breaking it.

"Done fixing that thing grandpa?" Asked XLR8, who had a tennis racket in his hand.

"I was." Said a frustrated Max.

Later still...

"Hey Miko, think fast!" Jack shouted. He tossed a frisbee at his japanese friend. She was lying on a beach towel trying to catch some rays. She sat up and turned to face Jack, only to see the frisbee that he threw at her. Her reaction time was not fast enough and she was hit by the flying plastic disk. She was knocked over when it struck her head.

"Urg!" Miko angrily groaned when she sat back up.

"Come on! Throw it back! you need the exercise."

"I can't believe it's me saying this, but you need to exercise some self control." Miko picked up the frisbee. "How'd you like it if someone did that to you?" She tossed it at Jack.

Jack held up his hand and caught the frisbee. "I don't know. It'd have to be some who doesn't throw like a girl." Jack was about to toss the frisbee back to Miko, but right as he did so, it was lifted out of his hand by one of Gwen's spells. "Hey!" What's wrong with you people? Don't any of you know how to have some fun?" Jack kicked a section of the sand. What he wasn't expecting was for him to hit a rock with his foot, which caused him immense pain. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Jack yelped as he hopped on one foot. He fell over onto the sand.

Miko laughed at Jack's pain. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

"Not funny." Jack groaned.

"You're right." Miko stopped laughing. "It's not funny. It's hilarious."

Later...

Jack was making a sandcastle. No matter how hard he tried, the seagulls wouldn't leave his creation alone. So he was trying to scare them off, but it seemed that they weren't afraid of Jack.

"Come on. Even the stupid birds on this beach don't wanna let me have any fun." Jack groaned. Suddenly, the Seagulls flew away. Now that's more like it. Jack turned around and saw a giant, mutated seagull fly at him. Jack rolled away from his castle before the mutated seagull landed, crushing his creation. As the mutant seagull roared, Jack put some distance between himself and the mutant. He turned to face it and activated the Omnitrix. "Hope you're ready for an early winter." Jack selected his Necrofriggian form. "Going Big Chill!" Jack slammed down into the Omnitrix.

However, he wasn't transformed into Big Chill. He became a white skinned alien that had green eyes that had a black jumpsuit that was in the shape of an X on his torso, while it covered everything else on his legs, which made it seem like he was wearing overalls. He wore a black head piece that had three fins on it, one on the top, two on either side. On this form's forehead was an Omnitrix dial. "Another alien?" This new form, which will be named Ditto said as he looked at his hands, which had four fingers the looked like rounded claws. His voice sounded a bit like Yakko Warner. "Let's see what you can do." Ditto cracked his knuckles and ran towards the mutated seagull. When Ditto got within striking distance, it kicked him and sent him sailing across the beach. "Uhg. I guess you're not strong." He mutated seagull cast a shadow upon Ditto. He heard its roar, which caused the horns on his head to perk up. His eyes went wide as he looked and saw the charging mutant. The seagull tried to impale Ditto with his beak. "Ah!" Ditto said as he rolled to avoid being killed. He started crawling away, but his foot was caught in the beak of the creature that attacked him. He was being pulled up, but ditto managed to grab onto the rock that was buried pretty deep in the sand. "Guess I'm not fast either. Let...go...of..." A electronic popping sound was heard. A second Ditto was created and held onto the feet of the original. "Us?" Ditto #1 asked in confusion. "Cool!"

The mutated seagull raised its head up, causing Ditto #2 to lose his grip on Ditto #1, who fell down face first into the sand. He got up and ran after the seagull that had his double.

"Hey! Come on! Ow!" Ditto #2 yelled as he was held by the less than careful mutated seagull.

Ditto #1 grabbed onto the tail of the seagull. "Woah woah woah! Not so fast bird brain."

As Max, Gwen, and Miko were trying to take it easy, they heard people screaming.

"Uhg." Max groaned. "Now what's Jack up to?" He looked up and saw people running from the mutated seagull that was walking in place in a circle with Ditto #1 hanging onto its tail, while Ditto #2 was in its mouth.

"Is that Jack?" Gwen asked.

"And Jack?" Miko added. "What the scrap kinda alien, or aliens has he turned himself into now?"

"Don't know, but it looks like he could use some help." Gwen said.

As the Seagull tried to shake Ditto #1 off of its tail, it moved towards a lifeguard stand, where two kids idiotically decided to hide under. All while the Dittos were complaining.

Ditto #1: "Hey, drop him now! Woah! Come on! Hey!"

Ditto #2: "Let me go! Ow ow ow! I don't have time for this!"

The mutate seagull stumbled into the lifeguard stand, breaking it, it would've fallen on them if a gust of wind wasn't keeping the structure aloft.

"Saphirius expectorium perpetua." Which was the name of the spell that Gwen said to keep the broken wooden structure from crushing the kids. The building rose up higher, allowing Max to run under it and grab the kids as soon as possible. He got them out of harm's way before Gwen brought the life guard stand down.

Max set the kids down, allowing them to run off. He turned to face the mutated seagull as it shook Ditto #2 around, who was yelling incoherently.

"Ow!" Ditto #2 groaned. "You're pinching my ankle!"

Ditto #1 felt the same pain. "Youch. Hey, I felt that too. Well, let's see if you can feel this!" Ditto #1 grabbed on of the feathers that was on the seagull's neck and ripped it out, causing the mutated avian to yelp in pain. It dropped Ditto #2. Ditto #1 was flung onto the beach as the seagull shook around. He looked at the feather that he held in his hand. The mutant turned its attention to Ditto #1. It raised its head up and was poised to strike at Ditto #1, but it turned to face Ditto #2 after it felt a brief, sharp pain.

"MIssing something?" Ditto #2 said while holding two larger feathers in his hands. He was joined by the first Ditto.

"Ha ha ha ha!" The Dittos laughed as they ran away from the mutated seagull that hissed venomously at them.

The seagull tried to fly, but found that the feathers that Ditto #2 took out of were from its wings, so all it could manage to do was hop. It began chasing the two Dittos across the beach.

They got close to an area with a few beach volley ball courts. The mutant seagull tried to bit Ditto #2's head off, but he slid to the side. It then tried to do the same to Ditto #1, but that ditto dodged its strike as well.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Both of the Dittos asked each other. They ran under the net of one of the volleyball courts. The mutated seagull ran into the net and got itself stuck in it.

Both of the Dittos took a look at their handiwork and admired the results. They high fived each other before walking over to the defeated mutant.

Ditto #1 placed his foot on the beak of the defeated seagull as it tried to get up. "That's right you overgrown turkey."

Ditto #2 took a seat on the beak. "Nobody messes with..." Both of the Dittos thought of a name for themselves. "Ditto!" They shouted while they stood on the beak. Both of the Dittos were in a two man huddle.

The mutant seagull broke free from the net. It tossed the Dittos onto the beach as it rose up. It took off and flew away.

"Nice one geniuses." Miko scolded as the mutant flew away. "Now we'll never know where that thing came from." She walked over to the two Dittos and found that they were about as tall as her, maybe a bit shorter.

"I've got a pretty good hunch that what just attacked you Jack is the work of your nemesis Doctor Animo."

Gwen sighed. "Well, guess that's the end of our fun day at the beach."

"Yeah, well maybe you're fun's over..." Ditto #1 said with crossed arms.

Ditto #2 leaned on Ditto #1. "But my fun's just starting." As Ditto #2 spoke, the Omnitrix dial on his and his double's foreheads started to blink, reverting him back to Jack. "As soon as the Omnitrix recharges."

Later...

Gwen was sitting on a beach chair underneath an umbrella. Miko was currently in the ocean swimming. Jack activated the Omnitrix and turned into Ditto.

"Wohoo!" Ditto #1 gleefully shouted as he jumped over Gwen's legs. Gwen was startled by this and pulled her legs closer to her. Ditto #1 caught a football that was thrown by Ditto #2. Ditto #1 threw it back to his duplicate.

Gwen couldn't concentrate on her reading while the Dittos tossed the ball over her. "The only thing worse than one of Jack's aliens being annoying..." She ducked when Ditto #2 tossed the ball again. "is two of them." When the ball was tossed her way, she held up her spell book and willed a shield into existence. The football bounced off of the shield and was sent high up into the air. Ditto #2 ran in the direction of the ball in an attempt to catch it. However, he didn't see where he was running and accidently ran into Max, who was eating a hotdog. Ditto #2 was knocked onto the ground.

Ditto #2 had a nervous smile on his face as his frustrated grandfather loomed over him.

"Jackson Darbys!" Max shouted.

Gwen and Ditto #1 ran over to Max and Ditto #2. "Okay, we're sorry." The Ditto duplicate apologized.

"Yeah," Said Ditto #2. "We won't bother Gwen anymore."

Gwen crossed her arms and had a stern look on her face. A water balloon hit the back of her head. She looked behind her and saw a third Ditto tossing a green water balloon in his hand. She snarled at this Ditto.

"But we didn't say anything about him!" Dittos #1 and #2 said while laughing.

Ditto #3 tossed the water balloon over his shoulder before duplicating himself. "Or him." Ditto #3 said.

"Two on two?" Dittos #1 and #2 asked Dittos #3 and #4. Ditto #4 nodded. The four Dittos ran over to a basketball court.

Soon...

One of the Dittos(I don't know which one is which) was dribbling the ball on the asphalt. A second Ditto approached him. He tossed the ball at the hoop. It went over the four Dittos and bounced off the rim. Another Ditto jumped up and caught the ball. When he landed, he was body slammed by another one of his clones. The one that was body slammed dropped the ball, which was caught by the Ditto that did the body slamming. He ran up to the hoop, jumped up and dunked the ball, which he followed by hanging onto the net.

"Time out!" The Ditto the was knocked over shouted. "That's a foul!"

"No it's not!" The Ditto that had the ball defended.

"Is to." Another Ditto took the ball out of his hands. "I felt it."

"How could I foul you nimrod?" The Ditto that got the ball taken from him asked. "We're on the same team."

"No you're not." The fourth Ditto said. "I'm on your team."

"Wait wait wait, so who's on my team?" The third Ditto asked. Ditto #1 tossed the ball at Ditto #3's head.

"I am dipstick!" Ditto #2 said. "Now get the ball!"

Ditto #3 shoved Ditto #2 to the ground. "You get it!"

Dittos #2 and #3 got into a fight. They rolled down onto the beach with Ditto #1 running after them.

"Hey break it up!" Ditto #1 shouted as he tried to get himselves to stop fighting with each other.

"Fine, I'll get the ball." Ditto #4 said as he went down to the edge of the water to get the ball. He picked it up before looking out towards the horizon.

Suddenly, something rose out of the water. It was Doctor Animo, who was wearing some kinda diving suit. He stood atop what resembled a horned tentacle. "Animo?" Ditto #4 knew that he wasn't that much of a fighter in this form, so he dropped the ball and tried to run away, but he was caught by a tentacle.

"Darby." Animo said as the mutated (giant)squid brought Ditto #4 towards him. "Hmmm. It seems that watch of yours is chocked full of new alien DNA." The top of a spherical container that was on Animo's back opened up. The tentacle dropped the Ditto into the container. The lid closed, trapping Ditto #4 inside. "And I'll enjoy extracting all of it from you, as painfully as possible!" Animo said with a diabolical grin.

Later...

Somehow, the other three Dittos were unaware that one of them had been kidnapped by Animo. Apparently, they still were fighting.

"Cheater!" Ditto #1 shouted at Ditto #3.

"I know you are but what am I?" Ditto #3 retorted. He placed his index finger on #1's forehead before pointing his thumb at himself.

Ditto #2 ran up. He had enough of this. He kicked the sand in frustration, however, he accidently kicked a rock.

"Ow!" The four Dittos yelped in unison. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" They were all hopping on one foot.

Gwen and Miko walked up. Gwen politely chuckled lightly, while Miko was laughing as hard as she could. "Having fun yet?" Miko asked.

"It's not funny!" The Dittos shouted in unison.

"You're right." Gwen said.

"Yeah, it's free time funnier."

Max walked up and noticed that someone was missing. "Wait, weren't there four of you?"

They heard a roar. The Dittos, Gwen, Miko, and Max looked to the sea to see Animo atop the horned tentacle.

"We got trouble." Said Max.

"You got that right. Trouble with a capital A for animo."

"And unless that's someone else, he's got your missing Ditto in that pod." Max said as the tentacle went back down into the water.

"This is your fault!" The Dittos accused each other. The Omnitrix dials on their heads blinked red, but were not returned to being Jack.

"Uh, shouldn't you be turning back into Jack right about now?" Asked Miko.

Max had a good idea of what was going on. "Something must be blocking the DNA transformation process."

"What?" Asked a confused Miko.

Gwen explained. "All the Dittos have to be in one place for Jack to revert back to being a human."

The three Dittos looked at each other. "We have to get back the other me!" They shouted. They turned and ran in three different directions.

"Well, this could take awhile." Sighed Gwen.

Meanwhile...

At an abandoned oil tanker, one that had run into some rocks, Doctor Animo had set up his base of operations. The mutated squid that Animo had used to kidnap one of the Dittos swam over to a submerged hole in the ship's hull.

Inside the ship's massive hollow compartment that was used for storing oil, Animo had set up his lab, which was just a couple of computers that was set up on a platform in the massive open area. Nearby, the mutated seagull sat upon a metal pole.

One of the mutated squid's tentacles rose up from the water. Animo was on it. It moved over to the platform, which Animo hopped onto. The squid removed the contained that had Ditto #4 contained off of Animo's back as the first of four people/things to be called mad doctor remove his diving suit's helmet.

"Careful my pet, we don't want to damage our prize." Animo said rather calmly.

The tentacle tipped the container, causing the lid to open. Ditto #4 was dumped onto the floor.

Ditto #4 rubbed his head as he recovered. The mutated seagull squaked when he saw what it's puny little bird brain thought was one the creatures that had caused it harm. It flew off of its perch and landed in front of Ditto #4. It squaked at the Ditto threateningly.

"What's the matter buzzard beak? Scared I'll pluck out some more feathers?" Ditto #4 mockingly asked.

Animo got between his pet and the Ditto. "No! We need him alive!" Ditto #4 took this opportunity to run. However, he didn't get far. He was caught by one of the tentacles.

"With your DNA, things I'll create will make these look like simple insects!" Animo shouted.

Soon...

Animo had Ditto #4 floating in a tube of water, or some other liquid. He looked over his medical tools for one that would be appropriate for extracting the DNA from one of Jack's alien forms. He for some reason picked a cattle prod and touched it to the tube that Ditto was floating in, zapping not only him...

Meanwhile, on a medium sized sailboat...

...but the the three Dittos that were sailing with Max, Gwen, and Miko to find Animo.

The three Dittos screamed when their fourth duplicate got shocked.

"You just feel that zap?" The Dittos asked each other.

"The other me must be in trouble!" Ditto #1 reasoned.

Ditto #2 brought up something of concern in relation to the telepathic bond that the Ditto clones share. "But if something happens to him..."

"What happens to us?" Ditto #3 asked while shaking

They ran over to the wheel that steers the ship. Currently, Max was steering the ship, but the Dittos ran over and forced him to relinquish control of the ship. Max stepped back as they fought over the wheel.

"Can't you go any faster?"

"No backseat drivers!"

"Driver!"

"No way!"

Max and Gwen shook their heads when they saw this, while Miko facepalmed.

Back at Animo's base of operations...

Animo was looking at a bunch of Ditto's cells under a microscope. The cell looked like the Omnitrix dial, but was a murky green and grey.

"It's better than I could've imagined!" He looked over to Ditto #4, who was pounding on the glass of the tube that contained him. "With but a single strand of you alien DNA, I can extrapolate the genetic codes for not only your arsenal of alien creature, but ones that you have yet to discover. In short, I will be able to create an almost limitless number of varying mutations just by using this one cell."

Ditto didn't like where this was going. He looked over and saw the mutated seagull preening its feathers. He pounded on the glass to get its attention. The seagull looked at Ditto #4, who was making faces in an attempt to get the mutant to strike.

The mutated seagull's short temper caused it to fly over to the container and start attacking it with its claws.

"I thought I told you not to damage the specimen!" When Animo barked this order, the seagull stopped attacking and flew back to its perch.

Animo went back to looking into the microscope and saw the cell split into two. "Truly amazing!" Animo was impress. "Limitless cloning capabilities!" Me: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! *Takes breath* Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Back on the boat...

"Can't this thing go any faster?!" Ditto #3 complained.

Max had finished repairing his jetpack. He looked over his shoulder and saw a crashed oil tanker. "Good thing we have a few extra hands on deck." Max said as Dittos #1 and #3 hoisted the sails, while Gwen steered the ship. Miko and Ditto #2 were on the bow of the boat, reenacting that one scene from titanic. "Now head for that oil tanker, it's the only thing off shore."

"Aye aye grandpa!" Said Gwen as she spun the wheel, turning the sailboat towards the crashed ship.

The sudden change in direction caused Dittos #1 and #3 to loose their hold on the rope, causing the sail to come crashing down on them.

"Ow! Cut it out dweeb!" Groaned Ditto #3.

"You're the dweeb!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Ditto #2 turned to see his duplicated fighting. "Aw man. What is with those two? They're driving me nuts!"

"That's because they're all you." Said Miko.

"No they're not. They're acting like little kids!" Shouted Ditto #2.

"Well it seems to me like you forget how old you are sometimes. Isn't that right mister 'I started working when I was ten to help support my mom'?" Mocked Miko.

"Well you didn't have to put it like that." Huffed Ditto #2. He thought to how when he was ten he spend summers mowing the lawns of his neighbors to make some extra money.

Back in Animo's lab...

Ditto was still trying to antagonize the bird into attacking him. He continued to try making faces, but found that it was getting him nowhere fast. He then came up with another idea. He raised his fists like he was ready to fight. "Too scared to fight me? What's the matter?" Ditto #4 placed his hands on the glass. "What's the matter? Are you a seagull, or a great big chicken?"

The mutated seagull glared at Ditto #4. It looked over to Animo, who was deep in his work. It then looked back over to Ditto #4, who was imitating a chicken. "Brawk! Brawk brawk!" The seagull got mand and roared at Ditto. The dumb bird rammed its head into the grass, breaking it and freeing Ditto. The water spilled out, tripping Animo. Ditto climbed out of the broken tube as the seagull tried to recover. "Woohoo! Thanks birdbrain!" Ditto mocked after he landed on the mutant's head.

Animo glared at Ditto as he ran off.

Outside...

As the sailboat approached the tanker, the Dittos, who were now all steering the boat sensed something. "He's close, I can feel it!" The Dittos said in unison. The Omnitrix dials on the top of their heads blinked. Suddenly, they were lifted off of the deck of the ship and flew towards the tanker. "Not again!" They groaned.

Max, Gwen, and Miko could only watch with dumbstruck confusion as they saw what I think to them is the strangest thing they've ever seen up until this point, and even to this day, it's one of the stranger things that they've seen.

The Dittos were being flown over to their fourth copy, who was currently trying to avoid the strikes from the mutated giant squid.

He ran to the bow of the tanker and thought he had met a dead end, but right when he had decided to give up, the dial on his forehead started to beep. He was lifted off the ground and was sent flying over to the other three Dittos. They merged into a single Ditto before the Omnitrix timed out. Ditto fell into the drink before he reverted back into Jack.

Jack gasped as he surfaced. "Woah, I'm me again." Jack noticed what he was wearing. "And I'm still in my swim trunks. Great. I think." A black shadow loomed over him. He looked up and saw the mutated seagull diving at him. Jack took a deep breath and dove under the surface. The seagull failed to grab him. Jack rose up when the seagull was gone and saw that it was coming around for another pass. This time however, Jack wasn't quick enough. The mutant grabbed him and took him up into the air. As he struggled to both get out of the bird's grip and hang on, Jack looked to see that the Omnitrix was still recharging. "As soon as the Omnitrix recharges you are getting fried!" Shouted Jack.

Jack looked to see what he(in his fear induced hallucination) saw as Skyrider(from what is in our universe the 1979 show Kamen Rider*), but in reality, it was his grandfather, who was using the jetpack that he had repaired to fly at the mutated seagull. He rammed into one of its wings, making it drop Jack.

Jack screamed as he fell towards the ocean. However, he was caught when a gust of wind caught him that was generated by Gwen when she said this: "Saphirius expectorium perpetua." Jack was picked up by a vortex of wind, and brought down to the deck of the boat gently. When he was on the deck, Gwen closed her spell book. "And you said reading books was a waste of time."

"No, what I said was that you should go swimming or do something beach related." Jack said. "But still, thanks."

They heard the squawking of the mutated seagull. "Uh, guys, giant winged heading right towards us!" Miko shouted as she pointed at the dive bombing seagull. It crashed into the main sail, destroying it before taking off. Jack lifted a six and a half foot tall section of the tip of the saidl off of him, Miko, and Gwen. They all seemed to have the same general idea.

Why they put their plan into motion, Max was trying to guide the Seagull away from the boat. The mutant was faster than he realized. He managed to stay just a few feet ahead of the grew feathered mutant, but that gap was closing quickly. The seagull opened its beak and was about to bit Max, but the retired plumber rolled to get out of its reach. The mutated seagull then went to the side, and was about to munch on Max, but it was caught by a vortex that was generated by Gwen.

Max looked over his shoulder to see Miko, Jack, and Gwen standing on top of a section of the sail, with Gwen propelling it using her wind spell.

"Hey grandpa," Shouted Jack. "take a lesson in double teaming from us."

Miko, who was standing between Jack and Gwen saw the mutated seagull approaching. She stuck her tongue out at it.

Gwen directed the sail fragment over to the tanker. When they got close enough, Miko hopped off and got onto the tanker.

Gwen and Jack remained on the glider and lead the bird into an ambush. They flew over to a crane and at the last minute, they went around it. The bird wasn't so lucky and ran into it. Disorientated, it hovered in the air, not prepared for Max to ram into it.

Gwen landed the glider and she and Jack got off. Max landed on the deck of the tanker as well. Miko ran up to join the other three.

"Oh yeah! Smack down for the scrapbook!" Miko exclaimed as she took a photo of Max, Gwen, and Jack.

Suddenly, seven large tentacles with six claws on each one rose out from the water.

"Scrap." Miko said as she looked around at the attacker.

Jack saw that the Omnitrix was green. He activated it and selected Big Chill. When he slammed down on the Omnitrix, that wasn't the alien he became, he was turned into Upgrade.

"Upgrade? Aw man. I wanted to be Big Chill."

Two of the tentacles grabbed Upgrade and picked him up and started stretching him. It got to the point where it started to be painful for the Galvanic Mechamorph. "Okay, this is really starting to hurt.

Gwen thought of something to help her cousin. "Skadiggeteth Metalarka!" It caused the chains that held up a shipping container to break, causing the container to fall and land on one of the tentacles, causing it to lose its grip on Upgrade.

Max then rammed into one of its other tentacles, causing Upgrade to be let go of. "Pull yourself together and give us a hand!" Max shouted before he was flicked by another one of the tentacles. Upgrade landed on the hull of the ship, then pulled himself back together. He rubbed his head before standing up.

"Uhg, working on it." Upgrade stood up and thought up a plan.

"Well work faster!" Shouted Gwen. "Saphirius expectorium perpetua!" She chanted as two of the tentacles tried to grab her and Max. She used the wind powers from the spell to try to push them away.

Upgrade turned into a pile of goo and then slithered over to a crane, which he possessed, turning the operator's area into a black and green cube. The cable turned into several tendrils that Upgrade wrapped around the tentacles of the mutated squid. "Is this fast enough for you?" Asked Upgrade as he restrained the squid. He sent electricity through the squid, causing it to retreat.

Soon after the squid retreated, the Omnitrix timed out, reverting Upgrade back into Jack, who was holding onto the hook of the crane, but his grip was not a good one. He let go of the hook and fell to the ground, but was caught by Max.

After Max put Jack down, the teen noticed that something was wrong. "Seems going Ditto takes a lot out of the watch."

"He's not the only one who's taken a lot out of your watch!" They heard Animo shout. From the opening to a storage compartment, up rose Animo. A set of black clawed hands reached up and near him. Out from the opening flew a massive creature that resembled Stinkfly, if he was more of a reptile. Animo was sitting atop its back. "You see, I have already incorporated its power into my own transmutation technology. Now, I will lead this planet in a glorious new phase of evolution!"

"Oh yeah! You and what army?" Asked Jack.

"This one." The creature that Animo was riding duplicated itself until there were seven of them. "Soon, I will replicate all of your aliens, and populate the Earth with a whole new variety of species. But first a show of strength to silence those who would dare to oppose me." Animo turned his sights towards the shore. "And I think leveling a beach town or two would get my point across." Animo led his squadron of mutated stinkflies away from the tanker and towards the shore.

"We have to stop him before he takes out the whole coastline." Max said.

"There's too many of them!" Gwen shouted.

"Well then let's make some more of us!" Shouted Jack. The Omnitrix bleeped, signaling that it was recharged. Jack pressed the button, raising the tower. He selected an alien and then transformed. He became Ditto, who stood triumphantly.

"Haven't you done enough damage?" Groaned Gwen while Max whispered something into Miko's ear.

"No" Ditto duplicated himself. "way." The two Dittos high fived.

Soon...

One of the Dittos was on Max's back, while the other sat on the tip of Gwen's glider.

"Now!" The Dittos shouted in unision. They jumped off of what they were riding before splitting up into at least six other Dittos. "It's all for one, and one for all!" They shouted as they came down on the Omnitrix mutants. However, they were unsuccessful. They fell into the water and swam back together, merging until there were only two. They surfaced and saw Gwen coming towards them. They grabbed onto the bottom of her glider.

Gwen thought up a plan. "Remember on the beach when one of you stubbed you toe, you all felt the same thing."

"We still do!" They said.

"So if we destroy just one of those stinkfly copies..." Max said.

The Dittos finished that idea. "It'll be like destroying them all! Now, which Stinkfly do we attack?" Asked the Dittos.

Gwen facepalmed. "It doesn't matter! Just pick one!"

The Dittos let go of the glider and landed on the back of one of the Stinkflies. They jumped to another one, then another, and another until they got to the one that Animo was riding.

"What is going on?!" Asked Animo as he and his mount started to fall out of the sky. He saw that the Dittos were holding onto the wings of the Stinkfly that he rode. "You!"

"Your ride's over!" The Dittos said. The Stinkfly creature was heading towards a boat. Animo was thrown off the creature before it crashed, while the two Dittos let go and fell into the water as well.

The boat exploded when the Stinkfly hit it, killing the mutant. Seconds later, the others shook before they too died, melting into a mucus green goo that fell into the ocean.

"No! No! NO!" Animo refused to admit defeat.

"Okay, time for a..." One of the Dittos said after it emerged from the water. "little one on one." Two more said. Soon, Animo was surrounded by at least twenty Ditto clones. They piled on top of Animo and the bit of wood that he was holding onto. "Make that one on none!" Ditto #1, the one that sat atop the pile of other hims said.

Later...

Animo was being hauled off by the police, again.

"You think he'll stay in prison this time?"

"Doubt it."

"Same here, but even if he does escape, I had Miko delete all his computer files, so even if he does escape, he won't be replicating any Omnitrix DNA."

"Niether will I for a while. I'm all Ditto'ed out." Jack said. "For now on, we can have fun your way."

"Okay, race you to the beach!" Miko said before activating her hoverboard, flying away.

"You're on Miko!" Gwen ran with the section of sail held over her head. "Saphirius expectorium perpetua!" Using the sail as a hang glider, she flew after Miko.

Max activated his jetpack, and took off as well, leaving Jack behind in the dust.

"Hey! Hey guys! Wait for me!" Jack shouted as he tapped the Omnitrix. "No fair! Aw man, where's Stinkfly when you need him!" Jack ran in the direction that the others flew in. "Or Bigchill? XLR8? Ripjaws? Hello, anybody?"

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. I gotta admit, Ditto is my favorite alien from the Ben 10 series. Of the ten or so things that I am a sucker for, ditto is at least three of them. Funny and is an Animaniacs reference. And for those who want know, the other things I'm weak to are Insect themed armor(Kamen Rider), Fallout references(the whole chapter Wrath of the Antagonizer is proof), Setonix Brachyurus, Lil Bub, The Shoddycast's Fallout Lore series, cute animals, Patrick Stewart doing non serious roles(like Avery Bullock in American Dad), and Japanese weirdness(to an extent, I like the quirky stuff like the whole train motif in Toqger and Fourze wanting to be everyone's friend, but not the just over the top of the top stuff like the fights in a lot of animes).


	33. The Code

Space…

The megacruiser that Jack and Vince were briefly imprisoned on flew through an asteroid belt in an unknown region of space. It was looking for something. The megacruiser eventually found what it was looking for, a chunk of ice that had someone inside it. The piece of ice had had the silhouette of arguably the most dangerous being in the galaxy. A claw arm reached down and took the chunk of ice into the ship. The various aliens that were aboard the megacruiser operated the inner workings. Several of them rushed to see what had been brought up.

Vince, still in his mutated form, jumped down from an observation platform. He approached the block of ice. "Wherever I went in the galaxy, no matter whose ass I kicked, one name kept coming up over and over…" Vince touch his Heatblast arm to the ice, revealing who was inside it, "Vilgax." The various aliens in the room were horrified that their master had willingly sought out Vilgax, the only one who could, can, and will threaten Megatron, and live to say that Megatron was a coward. "You and I have a lot in common

"Guess we have a lot in common, we both have unfinished business with a little punk named Jack Darby, and if you're as tough as they say you are, then you're just what I need to take him out, permanently."

Niagara falls…

Max, Gwen, Jack, and Miko were on a tour boat looking at the world famous horseshoe falls. If you don't know what this landmark looks like, I am not wasting my time describing it for you.

"How can you not admire the beauty and raw power of nature."

Miko was awestruck at the sight of the falls, while Gwen noticed something was off. "I don't know, ask Jack."

Jack was messing around with the Omnitrix. This cannot end well.

"Jack, would you please pay attention to something other than that watch?" Asked a frustrated Max.

"I'm just figuring out how to control it better, maybe figure out what went wrong when I broke it, that's all grandpa."

"Get real, there must be a billion codes for that thing." Said Miko, who turned to face Jack.

"Yeah, so?" Jack must've done something. The Omnitrix symbol glowed green and flashe the silhouettes of some of the aliens Jack had unlocked. "Oh scrap. Please tell me I didn't break you again. Maybe it's just some kind of an upgrade." Jack found himself transformed into that alien. "Woah, what happened? I never even touch it, unless…" Upgrade scratched his non existent chin. "Maybe now I don't have to. Upchuck!" Jack was transformed into his gourmand form. "Ditto!" Upchuck was transformed into Ditto. He then transformed into Diamondhead, who stood up from the bench that he sat on. "Cool, this is awesome!" He transformed into XLR8. "I must've finally unlocked some kinda master control." He transformed into Heatblast. "Now I can go alien." Then he became Wildvine. "Just by thinking it." He turned into Jackwolf and went over to the railing that his relatives and Miko were looking off of. He stuck his head over the side like a curious dog.

"Excuse me, would you mind taking a picture of me and my wife?" A man asked. He then saw Jackwolf and was scared. Jackwolf looked at the man and waved at him with a friendly smile on his face, but the man who wanted his picture taken was spooked and fell overboard.

Jackwolf, turned into Ripjaws. "No problem, Ripjaws to the rescue!" Ripjaws dove overboard and jumped out overboard and swam after the man. He then jumped out of the water and turned into Big Chill. He flew back over to the boat.

Gwen, Max, and Miko were having a hard time believing what they just saw. "Do Jack just go from werewolf to Ripjaws to Big Chill."

"Yeah. But that's impossible." Max said.

"Not anymore!" Big Chill said after putting the man that he rescued back on the boat.

Back on the megacruiser…

"The legendary Vilgax," Vince said as he paced back and forth in front of the block of ice that the alien tyrant was contained in. "You don't look so tough."

Vince must've said the anti safe word. Vilgax clenched his fist, cracking the ice around it. He broke free of the ice and punched Vince square in the jaw. The most dangerous being in the galaxy was free.

Vilgax emerged from the ice kneeled down. He stood up and view the abomination that had freed him. "Underestimating me is a grave mistake." Warned Vilgax as the cybernetic implants in his arm beefed him up, getting him ready to fight this Frankenstien's monster of Omnitrix aliens. "The last you will ever make." He grabbed a hexagonal shaped pillar and held it over his head effortlessly. He tossed it at Vince, who dodged it. The pillar hit a window, shattering it, and depressurizing the room.

Vince irked several crystal shards at Vilgax, who merely swatted them away. He then lunged at Vince, knocking him out of the broken window, sending both of them crashing down into the arena below. On the way down, Vilgax whaled on Vince, punching him over and over again until their decent ceased.

When they landed, Vilgax held Vince by his XLR8 tail and swung him around, tossing him through a wall.

Vince used his Stinkfly wings to fly over the wall in an attempt to get an edge over the alien warlord. Vince drop kicked, Vilgax, knocking him to the ground. He jumped off of Vilgax's chest and had his back turned on the tyrant. Vilgax delivered a punch to Vince's back that knocked him to the ground. As Vince slid on the ground due to the force of that punch, he flipped and got back on his feet. He flew at Vilgax at full speed, rapidly punching him, causing Vilgax to stumble back, but that did nothing to hamper Vilgax's ability to fight, and with a single kick to the stomach, Vince was stun locked, and with a right hook, the Omnitrix mutant was beaten.

"I just saved your lousy alien ass, you should be grateful." Said Vince.

Vilgax approached his defeated opponent. "Vilgax owes allegiance to no one. Especially not to a misshapen, chaotic amalgam of creature," Vilgax recognized where the creatures came from. "from the Omnitrix." He glared at Vince, his eyes glowing red. "What do you know of the Omnitrix?"

"If you mean the watch that turns Jack into those alien heroes," Vince stood up. "plenty." Vince raised one of his fists. "Now back off!"

Vilgax's tactical mind thought up an idea. "Hmm. You may be of some use to me after all."

"You took the words right out of my mouth."

Back on earth…

Gwen, Miko, and Max were sitting at a picnic table eating ice cream.

Suddenly, a gust of super cooled air hit the bowl Miko was eating out of, freezing it solid, with her spoon trapped inside.

"Damnit!" Miko looked up to see Big Chill hanging on of the side of a tree. "Jack!"

Big Chill laughed as he flew off of the tree

"You've been Big Chill for hours, give it a rest Jack."

"No way." Big Chill said as he flew toward the table, hovering above it. "Now that I can be alien for as long I want, it's time to take full advantage of it. Get a load of this." Big Chill dropped a stack of five dollar bills into Gwen's ice cream. "That's just from giving rides to tourists."

"You know, I never thought I'd say this, but I'd rather see your normal human face for a change instead of one of your aliens." Miko said.

"Miko's right Jack." Big Chill looked at his grandfather like he just admitted to murdering someone. "Just because you can be an alien all of the time, doesn't mean you should be an alien all the time. Pulse, we don't know if there are any hidden side consequences." Max cautioned.

Big Chill groaned. "Okay grandpa. I'll take it easy." Big Chill flew away. XLR8 them zipped over. "For a millisecond. Time's up. Be back soon."

The force of XLR8 speeding off knocked Max's bowl off of the table. "So glad we had this chat." Max groaned.

Thirteen minutes and over a thousand miles later…

XLR8 arrived in the Autobot base.

"What's up 'bots?" XLR8 asked right after he arrived in the base.

"What're you doing here?" Asked Ratchet. "You didn't tell us that you were coming back."

"Jack." XLR8 turned it Jack. "Nope, just came to get a few things."

"Uh, did you just say your own named?" Bulkhead asked.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?" Asked Jack. "Ditto." Jack transformed again. He split into three duplicates. "Okay guys, you know what we need to get?" The dittos nodded.

"Okay, that one's new."

"You like it Arcee?" Ditto #2 asked as he ran up to the human area and looked through the box of stuff that the kids kept up there. He found the Kamen rider action figure that he got from saving the store back when he first got the Omnitrix.

Ditto #4 came into the main area of the base holding an Energon cube. Ratchet saw this and took it from the Ditto.

"Woah woah woah, where're you going with that lil guy?"

"First off, I'm not little. And second, I'm taking that so that if Grey Matter wants to do some science stuff."

"Ichigo, you got the blackmail material?" #2 asked #1.

"He does not." Optimus said when he entered the main area of the base, holding Ditto #1 by the back of his neck.

The sudden bit of pain hurt for the other three Dittos.

"Ow!" Ditto #4 yelped. "Put me down!"

Optimus dropped the Ditto, which caused the others to feel the same amount of pain. When Ditto #1 got up, he said to Optimus: "Wow, for the guy who claims the be the leader of the good guys, you can be quite the jerk at times. I just wanted to know Fowler's deepest darkest secrets, is that so wrong?"

"It is his personal business."

"Okay. You're right. #3 do you have the Raf?"

Ditto #3 came into the room, having generated a fifth duplicate. They carrying with them Raf, with Bumblebee running after them.

"Got him!"

"Jackson, what're you doing?" Optimus asked as the chaos happened around him.

"I'm getting a few things for when I head back to Niagara Falls." Ditto #5 answered.

Raf had actually wanted to see the falls. "Wait, Niagara Fall? Why didn't you just ask?"

"Because we thought that Ratchet would've said 'it's a waste of energon to open a ground bridge near an oversized waterfall'." Ditto #1 said. The Dittos all merged into one before transforming into Jack.

"Uh, is anybody going to ask why Jack can turn into different aliens this fast?" Asked a dumbfounded Bulkhead.

Arcee had to agree with the green giant. "Yeah, that is a bit odd. How's that possible?"

"Well, I was fiddling around with the Omnitrix," Jack transformed into Heatblast. "I must've put the right code in," He transformed into Big Chill. "so now I have master control unlocked." He then turned into XLR8. "But enough about me, where's Smokescreen?"

"Out on patrol." Arcee said. "Optimus sent him out so he would stop hitting on me."

"Ooo, well, do you wanna come too?" Offered XLR8.

"Well, the 'cons have been rather quiet, and Optimus hasn't decoded any new entries in the Iacon archives, so yeah, maybe, if that's alright with Optimus."

Optimus nodded.

"Alright! Climb aboard, this train is departing." XLR8 said.

Arcee shrunk down to her human size and place her ID mask on. She and Raf go onto XLR8's back. XLR8 darted around the main room before leaving the base.

Back on the megacruiser…

Vince sat on a bench while Vilgax looked over his DNA with a hand held scanner.

"Interesting. Your DNA has clearly merge with the Omnitrix, just like that of Tennyson."

Vince payed Vilgax calling Jack 'Tennyson' no mind. He was however, itching to fight. "Yeah, thanks for the lesson professor." He expressed his anger at the delay in getting back at Jack. "Now when do I get to merge my fist with Jack's face?"

Vilgax was beginning to lose his patience with this creature. "After you remove the Omnitrix."

"You think I hadn't tried that? It ain't coming off."

"I am well aware of that detail. But with my expertise, and the DNA you share with Tennyson, we can now succeed!"

Vince stood up. "Listen up Vil-geek, I don't take orders, and I could care less about some dumb watch. I just want revenge on the wimp wearing it."

"Which you stand a far better chance of achieving, if he's not wearing the Omnitrix."

"Oh, there's one other thing you forgot Vilgy, his 'bodyguard' called Arcee."

"I know of this Arcee. She is of no concern, I have slaughtered countless other Cybertronians in the past, and only their leader Optimus Prime has been able to survive me, but that was before I became what you see before you. If she come to the aid of Tennyson, she will fall like all the others."

Vince had a good feeling about this. "So, what're we waiting for?"

"Patience. We can only track Tennyson when the Omnitrix is in use."

An alarm went off, signaling that the Omnitrix had been found. It showed that it was in use on Earth.

Back the Rust Bucket's location…

XLR8 got back to the picnic site with Arcee, Raf, and the stuff he got from the base.

"Raf, why'd Jack bring you?" Miko got up and hugged Raf.

Raf got off of XLR8's back. "Jack came to the base looking for some stuff, and Arcee and I asked if we could come." Raf said, not mentioning the fact that Jack tried to kidnap him.

"Smokescreen's still hitting on me." Arcee said. "Came here to get away from him, plus, I heard Niagara falls is one of the seven wonders of the world, always wanted to see what the fuss was about."

"Well, now that we're all here, who wants to take some pictures?" Max asked.

Later…

Gwen, Arcee(as Sadie), Raf, and Miko were looking at the falls from a bridge that got a good view of it.

As Max got the camera set up, Jack transformed into his mummy form and jumped off of the bridge. He grabbed onto the railing and let his arm extend until his was just inches from entering the water. "Oh yeah!" Jackmummy was having the time of his life. He then quickly retracted his arm, so that it was like he was bungee jumping, all the while the others looked over the railing.

Max turned and took a picture right as Jackmummy got to the top. Miko screamed, while Arcee and Raf laughed. Gwen had a look of disapproval as she saw Jack's rather juvenile antics.

The rest of the pictures were as follows. One was normal, everyone was smiling with the falls behind them and the nearby city in the distance. The next one was of a group of five dittos in the Gorangers' roll call pose. Next was one of Four Arms holding up Arcee's robot mode. Following that, Jackwolf got up close to the camera and was in the same pose as the Doge dog.(Years later, while making a scrapbook, Miko wrote things like 'Such Blitzwolfer. Much water. Very annoy. Wow.' on the picture.) After that, one was of Grey Matter was hanging on the camera, earning angered looks from Gwen and Raf.

In another picture, Miko was eating an icecream cone, and in the next picture, Heatblast and Sadie were in it. Sadie was laughing at Miko while Heatblast melted the ice cream. In the next photo, Heatblast had turned back into Jack, and was being chased by Miko, while Arcee was on the ground laughing.

A final picture was of the falls from the air, with a caption 'Taken by Stinkfly'.

The six of them were in a cable car looking over the falls.

"And if you look below, you'll see a steel barge that has been marooned in the upper Rapids since 1918." A tour guide said via a loudspeaker.

"Guess who got it stuck there." Arcee said.

"Let me guess, it was you or one of the 'bots."

"Nope, I don't know squat about it."

They heard Jack, who was currently Diamondhead spit of the side of the gondola.

"Jack, what in the name of Primus are you doing?"

"Stuff." Diamondhead said. "Trying to figure out what alien can hock the best spit ball."

"Jack, up until right now, what you've been doing has been okay, if a bit on the juvenile side, even if I think you should have a bit of fun seeing as you're on summer break. But this is where your fun crosses into the realms of now realms of just being gross." Arcee said as Diamondhead turned into Heatblast, who spat a bit of magma down into the water.

"Definitely Heatblast."

A second gondola passed by them. The people in it were speechless when they saw the flaming creature waving at them.

"I don't know him." Gwen said.

Suddenly, something shook the gondola that our main character were in. A bit of the roof was torn off, by Vince.

"But we do." Vince said. Vilgax reached down and grabbed Heatblast.

"Uh, who was that with Vince?" Asked Arcee, seeing as she wasn't present when Jack met Vilgax for the first time.

"It's V-V-Vilgax!" Raf stuttered Despite Raf only having a single encounter with him, he knew that Vilgax was more dangerous than even Megatron.

One of Vilgax's claws turned red. He tapped the dial, turning Heatblast into Jack. "And we know all his secrets!"

Jack gasped as he was forcibly turned back into a human. "Vince, Vilgax? You're-"

"Alive. And about to kick you ass Darby." Vince clenched one of his Wildmutt fists.

"Never figured you were the type to take on an apprentice Vilgax." Max said, taking it rather well that Vilgax was still alive, probably because he knew something like this was inevitable.

"Silence!" Ordered Vilgax. "Once this containment field neutralizes the Omnitrix, grab it."

"I said never tell me what to do!" There was a flash of green light. Jack was gone. "Hey, where'd Darby go?"

Vilgax opened his fist and looked around. He saw that Grey Matter was running towards the hole in the roof of the gondola. He reached down and grabbed him.

"You can't escape me that easily." Vilgax said while he held Grey Matter in both of his hands.

There was another flash of light and Grey Matter was transformed into Jackvicktor. Who forced Vilgax away, making him almost fall off of the gondola, but his clawed hand stopped him from falling.

"Guess again!" Jackviktor said. Vince tried punching at Javkviktor, but the Transylian ducked to avoid the punch. Javkviktor delivered an electrically charge punch to Vince's torso, the one to his face.

"What's this?" Vilgax monologued as Vince slapped Jackviktor to the other side of the gondola. Jackviktor turned into Diamondhead and fired several crystals shards at Vince. "The child has gained new control over the Omnitrix. Diamondhead's crystal shards caused Vince to stumble into what held the gondola up, causing several of the wheels to fall off. Vince tried to tackle Diamond, but he got out of the way. However, Vince used his XLR8 tail to grab onto Diamondhead's ankle, dragging him with him.

As they fell, Diamondhead turned into Big Chill. He phased through Vince's tail and hovered while Vince fell into the barge.

However, Big Chill wasn't expecting Vilgax to tackle him, sending him and the Necrofriggian crashing into the rock as well.

The force of the impact was enough to break the rock that held the barge in place, causing it to head towards the edge of the waterfall.

The other looked at the fight going on with shocked expressions at the cable car that they were on started to get closer and closer to the point where it'd fall.

Back on the barge. Big Chill turned into Four Arms. He tossed Vilgax onto Vince. He looked up and saw the gondola hang precariously and heard Miko scream. He transformed into XLR8 and ran towards the barge.

The last wheel broke. It began to fall. XLR8 transformed into Stinkfly and flew at the crashing gondola. He managed to grab Miko, Gwen, Raf, and Max, but not Arcee, who jumped off and into the water.

The barge that Vilgax and Vince were on went over the edge, falling to the river below.

Stinkfly meanwhile landed on an photo shooting area that was deserted. He got here before he got too tired to fly. He put his friends and family down before turning into Jack.

"I'm going after Vilgax and Vince." Jack said.

Max knew how much of a bad idea this was. "Jack, you can't beat them on your own, together they're too powerful."

Someone was missing, and Jack knew who."

"Oh yeah, just watch us." Jack said after he transformed into XLR8. He zoomed off to help Arcee.

"He sounds pretty confident." Miko said.

"Yeah, too confident, that's what worries me."

At the bottom of the falls...

Vilgax looked on his scanner for signs of the Omnitrix.

"We should be right on top of him." Vince said after looking over to Vilgax's scanner.

Vilgax looked up. "Or he is upon us!" Cannonbolt came crashing into the rock that Vilgax and Vince were standing on.

Right when Vince recovered, a black hand tapped his shoulder. When he looked to see who was there, he found at it was Arcee, who took this opportunity to sucker punch Vince with a left hook. Arcee looked over to Cannonbolt, who gave her a thumbs up.

In the Rust Bucket...

Max held his hand to a screen, which scanned his hand print. It opened up a compartment.

"When June told me about her last encounter with Vilgax, I went to the old Plumber base in Mt Rushmore to get something that I've had stashed away since then. It should be able to take care of both Vilgax and Vince." The compartment opened, revealing what was inside.

Raf knew what it was. "The Null Void projector?"

"The what?" Gwen asked.

"It's this gun that opens a portal to a dimension called the Null Void." Raf explained. "It's where the Plumbers keep their prisoners."

"So, basicly its ultra jail?" Asked Miko.

"Pretty much."

"But why'd you get it?"

"I thought it'd come in handy, unfortunately, I was right."

Back at the falls…

Vince was making chicken noises in an attempt to draw Jack out.

Jack(still Cannonbolt) and Arcee meanwhile were hiding behind one of the rooks.

"Come on out Darby, you big chicken."

Vilgax had had enough of Vince's immaturity. "Enough of you foolishness!" He saw the rust bucket drive on a bridge. "The old man and those children are the key, once we have them, the boy will come to us."

"Scrap." Arcee said when she and Cannonbolt saw Vilgax and Vince head for the Rust Bucket.

Cannonbolt turned into Jack. "Don't worry Arcee. I got a plan." He whispered something into Arcee's ear.

Arcee thought it was a good plan and nodded.

Soon...

Vince and Vilgax got onto the bridge where the rust bucket had stopped. Miko felt the footsteps of Vilgax. "Mr Tennyson, company!"

Max turned to face Vilgax.

"When I have the Omnitrix. I shall enjoy tearing apart not only you, but your daughter and her son as well, Tennyson!" Vilgax clenched his fist.

"Why wait? Come and get me!" Max fired the null void projector, opening up a portal.

The roar of Arcee's engine was heard as she sped towards the Rust Bucket. Riding her was Jack. When Arcee got to the RV, she hit the brakes, sending Jack flying off of her vehicle mode. Jack transformed into Diamondhead and flew towards the two. He landed besides Raf and Gwen and ran at Vilgax and Vince.

"I got it grandpa!" Diamondhead shouted.

"Jack, stay back!" Max warned.

"What's happening?" Vince groaned as he was sucked in.

"The null void! No!"

Diamondhead ran up to the portal and stopped before he accidentally got sent there. However, Vilgax reached through the Null Void portal and grabbed Diamondhead, pulling him in.

"Jack!" The other five shouted as the portal closed.

In the null void...

Diamondhead, Vince, and Vilgax arrived in the Null Void, which was an endless expanse of rocks, ranging from small asteroid sized chunk that were a few feet across, to large objects that were at least the size of Mars.

Diamondhead was pinned to the ground. "Okay, maybe that wasn't such a good idea."

"Where are we?" Vince asked.

"The null void." Vilgax answered. "A pocket dimension where the galaxy's worst criminals are banished."

"Well I'm the baddest of the bad." Vince said rather proudly.

Diamondhead saw something that was all too familiar to him."Oh yeah. Tell it to them." He pointed at a bunch of null void guardians, much like the one that Phil had released about a month ago. One of the. flew at Vilgax, but the alien tyrant caught it and put it into a chokehold.

Diamondhead turned into XLR8 and sped off. "No!" Vilgax groaned.

XLR8 hit the brakes before he ran off the edge of the chunk of rock that he was on.

Vilgax jumped onto the back of one of the guardians, and after pinching it the right way, got it to obey his orders. Vilgax began using it as a sorta mount.

Vilgax flew over to Vince, who was having trouble with the other guardians. However, when they senced, Vilgax, the guardians stopped attacking.

"What was that all about?" A frustrated Vince asked.

"Respect." Vilgax answered. "I command it even here." And Vilgax was right. From Earth, to Galvan Prime, to even the pits of Kaon, all fear Vilgax, except for one, but that's a story for another day.

"Yeah, well goody goody for you. What about Jack?"

"His grandfather will attempt to rescue him. We must find him, and extract the Omnitrix before that, or before one of the Null Void's residents does the deed before we can do so."

"What'dya mean?"

"The boy's mother is responsible for putting a number of beings in here. If they find him before we do, then we'll have competition for the Omnitrix. And if we are unable to find his grandfather, then we shall be trapped in here."

Back in the normal universe…

Max was wearing a jetpack. He had on an audial headset, a well as a pair of black gloves that had white armor. He fired the Null Void projector opening another portal. "I'm going after Jack." Max said.

"You can't!" Miko shouted.

"I have to."

"Max, she means that without June here, you're the only one that really knows how to work that thing." Arcee said.

"So let me go." Gwen offered.

"No, it's too dangerous."

"It's our best chance of getting Jack out of there Grandpa, and you know it."

"Or we could just open a ground bridge and Jack could get out like that." Miko suggested.

"No, a ground bridge in the null void would send you to another universe."

"So it's decided, Gwen goes into to get Jack out."

Back in the Null Void...

Heatblast was flying away from a bunch of the null guardians. The guardians were being led by Vilgax and Vince.

Heatblast flew around a spire and tried to lose his pursuers, but that failed. He was caught off guard by Vilgax, who used his null guardian mount to grab Heatblast with its mouth.

Soon...

Heatblast was being carried by one of the null guardians. He touched his hands to the side if it's face and burned it, causing it to open its mouth.

Heatblast turned into Grey Matter and jumped out of its mouth. When all the null guardians gathered around him, he turned into Cannonbolt and bounded away. He then turned into XLR8 and started running along the tops of the asteroids. He then looked to the left and saw the one that Vilgax was riding approach him. He turned into Stinkfly and flew above it, then became, Four Arms and drop kicked it, stunning it. He the. Became Grey Matter and jumped off of Vince's head. When couple of the null guardians were about to munch him, Grey Matter turned into Wildmutt and bit their wings off, causing them to fall. When three more came flying at him, he transformed into Wildvine and got them tangled in each other. He turned into Heatblast and flew away, however, he was rammed by two more null guardians. Heatblast turned into Grey Matter to climb out of the pile. He looked behind him to see yet another null guardian fly at him. Grey Matter s renamed as his eyes went as wide as quarters.(Or saucers if he were human sized.)

Back in the normal universe…

Gwen but on a grey jumpsuit she put on a black belt that had a silver buckle. On the buckle, she put several red and metallic grey containers that were actually bombs. On her right wrist, she put a bracelet like watch that was a radar. He put the jetpack on.

"Your watch is a homing beacon. As soon as you find Jack, you can use it to lead you back to the portal." Max said.

"How long does she have?" Asked Arcee as Gwen finished suiting up.

"I can only keep the portal open for about ten minutes or so, wish I could keep it open longer, but the Energon cells won't last any longer than that." Max pointed to something on Gwen's radar. "Once this gauge hits the red zone, you need to get out, with or without Jack."

Arcee tossed Gwen a blaster. "What's this for?" Gwen asked.

"For anything that's not Jack. I know first hand what's in there, and some of its out to get revenge on June. And everything else is just out for blood."

Gwen holstered the gun before she walked into the portal.

In the null void...

As soon as Gwen entered the Null void, she started to fall. She activated the jetpack and started flying towards Jack.

"This place looks like it goes on forever." Gwen said, both awestruck and terrified of the pocket dimension she had entered.

"I does." Max said over the radio. "I'm not even sure what half the things I there are, so keep you eyes peeled for both Jack, and for trouble."

As Gwen flew up, she stumbled upon a section of rocks that had at least a dozen creatures that resembles the Havok beast, but were turquoise and light blue.

They saw Gwen and charged at her. While most of them fell, a few of the, managed to grab onto Gwen. Gwen screamed as she was being grabbed down.

"Gwen, what is it?" Max asked.

"I don't know. They're small, fast, and really annoying." She said as she shot a few of them.

"Havok beasts." Arcee said. "Keep them away from the jet pack or they'll chew it to bits."

"Since when did you know what different aliens are?" Miko asked.

"Remember, I know a few of them, and I know that Havok beasts are a nuisance on a starship.

"Too late!" Gwen shouted as two of the Havok beasts bit into the jetpack. Gwen boosted away. As she flew, she took one of the charges that was around her belt and tossed it. The Havok beasts that were still holding onto her let go and chased after the charge.

It landed on a rock. The Havok beasts clustered around it, seconds later, it exploded taking the Havok beasts with it.

Gwen flew off after seeing the explosion

With Jack...

Jack, who was back to his human form, landed on a rock and transformed into Wildmutt. He climbed to the underside of it and hung on it. He smelt Vince, Vilgax, and their swarm of null guardians approaching.

After the null guardian that carried Vilgax landed, Vilgax checked his scanner for where Jack might be. Vince sniffed the air in an attempt to locate Jack. Vince looked on the underside of this rock. Right before that, Wildmutt turned into Grey Matter and tried to hide in a hole in the rock, but that wasn't going to happen. Vilgax caught him off guard. He made his null guardian ram into the section of the rock that Grey Matter was on.

Grey matter was thrown of the asteroid and transformed into Big Chill, who flew as fast as he could away from the null guardians.

Back in the 'normal' universe…

The null void projector started to spark.

Back to the null void...

"Gwen…" Max said over the comm link. "Something's gone screwy with the projector, I don't know how much longer I can keep the portal open. You have to head back now."

"Not with out Jack. I promised his mom I'd keep him out of situations like this." Gwen said. A foul odor passed by her nose. "Wait, what's that stink?" Asked Gwen as she punched her nose shut.

Stinkfly flew into her. "Gwen? Man am I glad to see you." Stinkfly hugged his cousin.

Gwen didn't have time for this. "The portal's closing."

A hammer headed serpent rose up from its burrow. Stinkfly saw it and flew away from its jaws, holding onto Gwen while he did so.

When Stinkfly got away, he saw the portal and flew towards it. Vince rammed into Jack and grabbed Gwen.

"Going somewhere without you old pal Vince?" The Omnitrix's mutant asked.

Gwen tried to shoot Vince, but her blasts hit his Heatblast hand. He took the gun from her and crushed it.

Back in the regular universe...

"Max had lost contact with Gwen. "Gwen, what's going on? Gwen!"

Back to the null void...

"Let her go or I'll-" Stinkfly said before being interrupted by Vilgax.

"You'll what?"

Stinkfly looked at his options. He landed on an asteroid that was beneath him. He turned into Jack. "Let her go and you can have the Omnitrix!" Jack shouted, holding up his left arm.

"Jack, no!" Gwen shouted.

"We have a dea or don't we Vilgax? My cousin for this stupid watch." Jack held his hands behind his back as Vince and Vilgax landed on the rock that he was on. While the his hand were behind him, Jack did something to cause the Omnitrix to flash white for a split second.

Vince held Gwen is his Diamondhead hand. He put her down while Jack held out his arms. Vilgax grabbed his left wrist while Gwen grabbed Jack's right hand. Vince tossed Gwen away. He punched Jack down with one of his Wildmutt arms, then stepped on his left arm. He used the device that had been on his back since the encounter began to take the Omnitrix off of Jack. The device looked like a drill bit with four claws. He slammed it down above Jack's wrist. The Omnitrix unleashed a torrent of energy to try to force the device away, but Vince was stronger that it. Vince got the device to stick into the ground. The silhouettes of various aliens flashed as a smaller claw came down and began to remove the Omnitrix, causing Jack unimaginable amounts of pain' the only thing he could do was scream. The Omnitrix was off of Jack's wrist and placed in a grey and blue sphere. The sphere popped out of the top of the machine. Vince tossed the device that removed the Omnitrix from Jack to the side and grabbed the sphere.

"Sucks to be you!" Jack shouted, hoping to get even a small victory. "I zeroed it out! Good luck trying to figure out the master control now!"

Vilgax almost laughed at Jack's ignorance. "Cracking the control combination is child's play for a master of the Omnitrix."

"Oops." Jack just realized that he done gone and f'ed up.

"But who says you're even getting it?" Asked Vince as one of the null guardians flew by. He hopped on its back and flew away from Vilgax and the now powerless Jack.

Vilgax hopped on his null guardian mount and flew after Vince. Jack was left alone on the asteroid. He lost. It was hopeless for him now, well, not entirely so.

"Jack!" He heard Gwen shout. Gwen flew by and picked him up.

Gwen ask Jack flew towards the portal. Gwen held onto Jack's arms as they flew.

"Hey Vince, what about your revenge? I'm still alive!" Jack shouted.

"I figure leaving you stuck in here with you arch enemy is still pretty sweet." Vince looked at the Omnitrix contained. "And if I can use this thing to take over the earth, it's just the icing on the cake!"

Back on earth…

The null void projector started to overload.

"Gwen, get out of there!" Shouted Max as he tried to fix the problem. "It's too late!"

Back in the null void…

Vilgax jumped off of his mount and tackled Vince, causing the mutant to lose his grip on the Omnitrix sphere.

"I told you. Vince 11 doesn't take orders from anybody!" Vince said as he punched Vilgax over and over on the way down. Vilgax grabbed Vince and tossed him down.

"Got it!" Gwen shouted when she flew down and grabbed the Omnitrix sphere. She flew up towards the portal.

The two void guardians that Vince and Vilgax used flew down. The two villains flew after Jack and Gwen.

Gwen and Jack were almost to the portal. "Let's go!"

Vilgax and Vince got ahead of Jack and Gwen. "Go where?" Vilgax asked. "Back to your miserable dimension? First, the Omnitrix." Vilgax held out his hand.

"Get rid of it." Jack whispered as he held onto Gwen's waist.

"But your powers-"

"Are nowhere near as important as getting us home." Jack argued. "Toss it, now."

Gwen knew how the Omnitrix had changed Jack's life, but she also knew how important it was for them to get home, but she didn't want Jack to go back to his pre-Omnitrix life, and since that wasn't going to happen, she played a dirty trick on Vince and Vilgax. She tossed what Jack, Vince, and Vilgax thought was the Omnitrix over her shoulder. Vilgax went after the 'Omnitrix', that just left Vince to deal with Jack.

"You want me? Come and get me!" Jack shouted as he let go of Gwen's waist, dropping down to a rock that was ten feet below him.

"Jack! No!" Gwen yelled.

"I know what I'm doing, just go!" Jack ordered. "And if I don't make it, keep Smokescreen away from Arcee."

As Gwen flew through the closing portal, VInce's null guardian flew over to Jack. When the creature got to the edge of the rock, vince jumped off of it and onto the rock. He towarded over Jack.

When Vince came in for a strike, Jack jumped, avoiding the stab from Vince's Diamondhead arm. Jack landed on Vince's face and then jumped off of it. He grabbed onto a curved rock, slid on it then jumped onto another one, and finally to a rock that was barely a yard across, which he jumped off of it and went through the portal right before it close. When the portal closed, Vince was trapped in here for ever, where I'm sure he'll never bother anyone ever again.

Back on Earth...

Jack exited the portal right before it close.

"Jack!" Arcee brought Jack into a tight hug. "I thought you were gone forever."

"You're alright." Max said.

"Well, mostly alright." Jack said, showing that he no longer had the Omnitrix.

"Listen Jack, about the Omnitrix..."

"I know, I was being a bit of a jerk and kinda abused my powers, and I'm sorry. Guess that won't happen again, since I'm back to being just plain old Jack."

"Jack, what you did back there was really brave, so I have a present for you." Gwen said.

"Thanks, but I don't deserve it."

"Okay, maybe your mom might like this for her birthday." Gwen said, showing that she had the Omnitrix container.

Jack took the sphere from Gwen. "Woah! The Omnitrix! But how? I saw you toss it away."

"Maybe you're dumb enough to throw the Omnitrix away, but I'm not."

"So, what exactly did you throw?" Asked Arcee.

Gwen smiled deviously. "A bomb."

"Well Jack, better now than later." Miko said. "Put the watch back on."

The container opened. Jack took the Omnitrix out and placed it on his left wrist. It glew bright green, so bright it could be seen during the day. However, something happened to Jack when the light cleared. Nothing major changed.

"Pretty clever Gwen." Max said, patting Gwen on the back. "Jack, I think you owe you cousin a big time thanks. Hold on, were your eyes always green?"

"That I do, but first- wait what?" Jack asked as he activated the Omnitrix. "No, my eyes were blue."

"Well, take a look at them now." Miko handed Jack a mirror.

"Hmm. I like it. We're gonna have a hell of a time explaining this to my mom. Now where was I, oh yeah." Jack selected Big Chill, but when he slammed down the dial, he was turned into Grey Matter. "Grey Matter? Oh no! I forgot that I zeroed out the master control."

"Don't sweat it, there's only like nine hundred and ninety nine million more combinations for you to try." Miko laughed.

"That's it!" Grey Matter fumed. "You are so gonna get it!" Grey Matter clenched his fists as he grunted. "Werewolf! Wildvine! Ditto!" The Galvan shouted as everyone laughed at him. "Aw man." He groaned.

Chapter end.


	34. The Galactic Enforcers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: Before we start, just let me say that I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this chapter.

Somewhere in space...

A small spaceship exited a yellow portal. It approached a red planet that had an asteroid field around it.

It came to a space station that was built into a larger asteroid. After the ship landed, a second portal opened up and out of it flew another ship, one that looked like a helicopter that was missing its main rotor.

It flew over to the ship that had landed and hovered over it. It fired a red energy plant at the ship, destroying it and punching a hole in the station.

A being jumped out of the helicopter like ship and into the station. It was an orange skinned detrovite known as Vulkcanus. He was the same same species as Teknorg, but lacked the gladiator's mace arm.

Vulkcanus was detected by several of he station's robot guards. They fired yellow energy blast at the massive orange alien, but their attacks didn't even singe his maroon and silver armor.

Vulkcanus charged at the drones. He destroyed each one with one punch, that is until he got to the last one, which he crushed the head of. He encountered little resistance between his current location and a door, which he used a laser to slice open. He had found his goal. A glass container that contained a single shard of a crystal that glowed purple. I swear, if this is dark Energon or corodium, I am going to scream. Vulkcanus grabbed the crystal before making his way to an air lock, which he used to exit the station.

The ship that dropped him off flew over to pick him up. Vulkcanus entered the ship through a door in the back. He walked into the cockpit and spoke. "Element X." Vulkanus said as he presented the item to the ship's pilot, who was Sixsix. "It's no good by itself you know." Sixsix used one of tentacle arms to grab the container. "Where're we going to find the bicenthium alloy we need to make it go boom?" What we eventually learn what bicenthium alloy is angers me to know end, not the name, just what it is, and how it seems earth is the only planet with a lot of it. This one detail that most people just ignore bugs me more that every single recon from omniverse. This is why I'm neutral to positive in my opinions of Omniverse, Omniverse had to follow the rules set by the shows that came before it. But yeah, some of the things in Omniverse do bug me, like big chill's design, and how the plumber's helpers weren't born that way, but the idea of bicenthium alloy is the one concept in ben 10 that bugs me to no end. But now back to the story.

Sixsix held the Element X container in his hand as he used his other one to type a code into the panel of the chair that he sat in. A red hologram of a planet popped up.

"Urg. I should've known." Vulcanus groaned when he saw the planet. "The cesspool of the galaxy, Earth." Oi, we're not that bad.

In shocker's fortress...

Arcee, in her human guise of Sadie, had been captured by the Shocker Kaijin Spider Woman, who looked like Airachnid, but was human sized. Arcee struggled to get out of her binds, but they were too strong.

"Give up Sadie, you can't escape. And your guardian angel Ichigo won't save you." Airachind/Spider Woman taunted as she reached over to a tray full of tools of torture. She grabbed a scalpel and prepared to make an incision on Sadie's forehead. However, she stopped when she heard the roar of a motorcycle's engine.

The door to the lab was burst open, it then filled with smoke. When the smoke cleared. Spider Woman and Sadie saw who had come. It was Jack, but instead of his normal blue jacket, he wore a leather jacket and had a belt with a turbine in it.

"Release Sadie Spider Woman or else!" Jack ordered. He got off his motorcycle, which looked like the one from the movie Kamen Rider The First.

"Or else what? I take don't orders from a traitor." Spider Woman said as she turned her attention away from Sadie. "Combatmen!" A panel in the floor opened up and up from the opening, rose twelve human sized vehicons that were painted black and white like the shocker combatmen.

"EEE!" The combatmen exclaimed as they performed their salute, which was inspired by(and I swear this is true) the 'Sieg Heil' salute used by WW2 Nazis.(I swear on the life of my mother I don't know why they did this, just don't accuse me of being anti semitic.)

"You leave me no choice." Jack said. He removed his leather jacket, revealing his body armor, which looked like the suit of Kamen Rider #1 from Kamen Rider The First. He placed on his helmet and mouth plate, and he was suited up. The lenses on his helmet glowed blue as he got ready to fight. The combatmen and Spider Woman charged at Ichigo. He ran up and punched one of the combatmen square in the face. He side kicked another one. He jumped and stood on the shoulders of yet another combatman. Ichigo squeezed his neck with his shins and did a backflip, flinging the combatman into the wall. He grabbed the heads of two more combatmen and slammed their heads together, knocking them out. He then kicked the shins of two more combatmen, taking them out of the fight. With a very wide side kick, he defeated the remaining five combatmen, leaving only Ichigo and Spider Woman.

Spider Woman fired webbing out of her hands in an attempt to restrain #1, however, he jumped back to avoid her snare. Ichigo then ran up to her and punched and kicked her rapidly. Spider Woman managed to use one of her spider legs to cut Ichigo, making him bleed. While Spider Woman laughed, Ichigo sucker punched her as hard as he could, disorientating her.

Ichigo stepped back he jumped into the air and delivered his finishing move, the Rider Kick. When the kick connected, Spider Woman began to spark. She soon fell over and exploded.

Ichigo removed his helmet and ran over to the restrained Sadie, who he then started to untie.

"Thank you Jack." Sadie said. "I just need you to do one thing for me."

"Okay, what do you need me to do?"

"I need you to" She said in her normal voice. "get down!" She shouted with Miko's voice.

"What?" Asked a confused Jack.

"Get down Jack!" She shouted again.

In the real world, was reading a comic book called kamen rider the first.

"Jack, that's a work of art you know, not your own for rest." Miko said as she looked up at Jack who was sitting atop a sculpture that looked like a foot.

"You're gonna get us kicked out of the museum."

Jack jumped down and landed next to Miko. "I thought you hated art museums." Jack said.

"I can handle one afternoon, besides, don't you remember, this is where Optimus said one of those Iacon relic was."

"He must be pulling our leg, the 'cons haven't shown up, so I guess things are pretty good." Jack said after he popped a piece of chocolate into his mouth.

"Hey, can I have a piece?" Asked Miko.

"Sure." Jack tossed Miko a Hershey's kiss. "Just don't ask for any more."

Meanwhile, inside the museum…

Gwen and Arcee(as Sadie) were looking for anything that was made out of cybertronian metals with a scanner that had been disguised as a camera.

They took pictures of the various sculptures, each one being made of of either stone or common metals such as copper or bronze.

"This is gonna take forever." Arcee groaned as Gwen took picture after picture.

Just then, Gwen spoke up. "Found it."

Arcee recognized the relic. She snickered. "This is what Prime needed us to find?"

"You know what it is?"

"Yeah, it's a scale model of the first space bridge. Not a weapon of mass destruction, or relic from the Primes, but something somebody built because it was their hobby."

They heard a rumbling and seconds later saw Miko and Jack running toward the front door.

"What was that?" Gwen asked.

"Maybe one of the 'cons is here to take it back?" Arcee suggested as she and Gwen ran after Miko and Jack.

Outside…

Gwen, Miko, Jack, and Arcee saw Sixsix's ship fly over the city.

"Looks like today won't be such a boring day after all." Jack said with a smile on his face.

Jack ran to where the ship landed. A crowd of people had gathered around, so Jack couldn't transform, although in a few years, Jack wouldn't care if people saw him transform.

The door at the back of the ship opened. Vulkanus jumped out. "Take me to your bicenthium allo." He ordered.

Everybody was confused, not at the fact that the alien could speak English, but rather, they were at a loss of words when they tried to think of what the alien demanded.

Vulcanus, having little patience growled before he punched the ground, tearing up the road. The people who had gathered around ran away in a panic. Jack was also one of the people who ran, not because he feared Vulkanus, no. He ran because a car was thrown in his direction.

"Well that was rude." Jack said as he hid in an alleyway. "Somebody's gotta teach discount treknorg some manners."

Back at the museum…

Max and Raf were looking for Jack. They found the girls, who were sitting on the steps, but Jack was nowhere to be found.

"Have any of you seen Jack?" Max asked.

Arcee and Gwen shrugged. However, Miko spoke up. "Last I saw, he was heading downtown to see what was up with that ship."

"So, where is he now?" Asked Raf. There was an explosion.

"There." Arcee pointed in the direction of the source of the noise.

Back where Vulkanus was…

The detrovite was tearing up the down town on a blind fury. He was tossing mailboxes into building, crushing cars he was about to squash a couple of civilians with a pickup truck, but he dropped it when Four Arms landed on him.

"Okay tough guy, fun's over."

Vulkanus looked at his attacker and recognized the species. "A tetramand? This planet really is a dump. What's next, a Cybertronian?" Vulkanus threw Four Arms off his back. Four Arms landed in his feet, but then Vulkanus grabbed his head and tossed him into a glass door.

Vulkanus went through the the broken door to finish off his opponent, but he was cost off guard by Four Arms, who ran up and delivered a right hook, which sent him flying across the street.

Sixsix flew out of his ship and aimed a blaster at Four Arm. When one of the blazer bolts that Sixsix fired, Four Arms looked up and saw who was the second attacker.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Four Arms took cover. He saw that Sixsix fired a volley of four missiles out of his wrist mounted launcher at Four Arms, which the tetramand ran as after as he could to avoid. The missiles didn't hit Four Arms, but hey hit the surrounding building, causing damage to them.

Miko and Arcee poked her head around the corner of one of the partially destroyed buildings. They saw who had fired on Four Arms.

"Oh you gotta be fragging kidding me!"

"It's that alien with the jet pack, the one who came after Jack with all those bounty hunters."

"Heard about that one. Seems Sixsix busted out of galactic jail." Max said.

Sixsix fired two more missiles at Four Arms, which were caught, and sent back at Sixsix. Sixsix dodged one of them, but the second one hit him, sending him crashing into a truck.

Four Arms ran over to the destroyed truck to see if Sixsix was out of commission. He jumped onto the truck and grabbed Sixsix by the front of his suit. But before Four Arms could deliver the knockout punch, Sixsix opened a compartment on his chest and out of it fell a small grey device with a piece of a magenta metal that shined.

The device caused Four Arms to fall to his knees. Sixsix took aim with his missile launcher and prepared to fire at the downed Tetramand, but what sounded like thunder distracted him.

In a flash of blue light, three aliens teleported in. They were of different species.

Bizarrely, Four Arms knew these aliens. He saw them in the future and he knew as the Galactic Enforcers.

Sixsix had a blue aura around him. He was moved away from Four Arms and was tossed to the street.

"No way." Four Arms was in disbelief.

"Okay, this is weird even by our standards." Said Arcee as she ran up with the others.

"Friends of yours?" Raf asked.

"In the future, kinda, now, not sure."

"Wait, did you say future?" Asked Miko.

"We'll explain later." Gwen said.

"Rescue formation alpha-9!" The leader, Ultimos commanded.

"It's the capes." Vulkanus groaned as the Galactic Enforcers charged at him and Sixsix. "I hate capes!"

Sixsix shot at Ultimos, who was flying, but his shots did nothing to injure the superpowered alien. Ultimos fired twin beams of energy from his eyes at Sixsix's gun, destroying it.

Fink ran up and clapped her fists together. The extreme force of the clap sent Sixsix flying I got the truck that Four Arms stood on, denting it further.

When Four Arms looked at the other tetramand, he saw that she had a smile on her face and winked at him, in response, Four Arms awkwardly waved at her.

The third member of the trio, an octopus like alien named Synaptak, who had a dome with an exposed brain. As Vulkanus tried to strike him, Synaptak got more and more furious. His ball and green face showed anger as he used his telekinetic powers to lift Vulkanus up into the air. Ultimos then flew toward him and punched him out, sending him crashing onto Sixsix.

Ultimos spoke to the two criminals as the began to recover. "By the provisions set forth by the galactic code of conduct, I order you to surrender. Will you yield?"

"Yield? What is this? Some kind of traffic violation? Put some cuffs on them before they try to pull something." As Four Arms spoke, Sixsix deployed another one of those pain bombs, but this time, it teleported their ship to them, and got them aboard. "Like that."

Before the ship flew away, Sixsix could be seen standing in the door frame. He took aim at the pillars of a bank, and fired his shoulder blasters at it, causing part of the marble structure to come crashing down.

Four Arms, Tini, and Arcee ran up to try to stop the building from falling on the other. Arcee held it up closer to the building, while the two tetramands were holding it closer to the road.

"You may release your grip." Synaptak said as he used his powers to grab the section of marble and move it back into place.

Ultimos used his heat vision to melt the marble and fuse the two pieces back together.

"So, what's a big strong guy like you doing on a planet like this?" Tini asked Four Arms as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "We make a good team don't you think."

"Uh, I kinda like here." Four Arms awkwardly said. Before he had to say any more, the Omnitrix dial started to blink, causing Tini's four orange eyes widen. "Yes, saved by the beep!" Four Arms was for once, glad that he was turning back into Jack.

She bent down and looked at "What happened? Where'd the rest of you go?" She asked the human teen.

"Sorry to disappoint, but this is really all there is to me."

Synaptak and Ulitmos flew over to Jack and Tini, who were joined by Max, Gwen, and the others.

Synaptak saw the Omnitrix on Jack's wrist. "So, it is true. The Omnitrix is in the possession of a child. We heard you were of somewhat limited mental capacity, no offense."

"Who says I'm a child? I'm sixteen."

"But about the limited mental capacity, that's not the first time he's been told that, and something tells me it won't be the last."

"Greeting, I am Ultimos, the leader of the squad." He motioned towards his teammates. "This is Synaptak, and Tini." He said, pronouncing Tini like 'tiny'. "We are, the Galactic Enforcers."

"Raf, chalk this up as the eighth weirdest thing we've seen all summer." Arcee whispered to Raf.

"Woah! The costumes! The moves! You guys are superheroes like Jack."

"She is over enthusiastic." Synaptak said.

Ignoring the octopus like alien, Ultimos continued. "As per the galactic code of conduct, we hereby officially request clearance to operate in your solar system."

"Okay, I guess."

"Very well, then we have much to discuss." Ultimos tapped a button on his belt buckle, causing blue circles to appear around the feet of the Galactic Enforcers, Jack, and the others. They were teleported away.

Above the Earth…

Jack, Gwen, Miko, Arcee, Max, and Raf found themselves in a room that was made out of a light blue metal.

"Woah." Max said as he tried to stay standing. "Never did like those transmatts."

The Galactic Enforcers teleported in.

"Okay," Jack said as he looked around. "Where are we?" Jack looked out of a window, and saw the earth from space. "Well that answers that. But what is this place, it's like some kinda super hero base."

"Close you mouth Jack, you don't wanna drool all over the place." Miko said mockingly.

"Um, excuse me, Ultimos." Raf spoke up.

"Yes child?"

"What's Gadget Guy doing here? Tetrax told us that he was being locked away."

Ultimos pressed a button on a circular table, that caused a hologram to be projected. "His name is Sixsix. He escaped from incarnation recently and has formed an alliance with the kretin Vulkanus."

"A detrovite." Synaptak explain. "Limited mental capabilities, all brawn, no brains, you know the type." He glared at Jack.

"They were hired to steal, Element X." Ultimos said dramatically. A hologram of the container of Element X was displayed.

"And that is?" Arcee asked.

"Yeah, what's Element X? And what's its real name?" Miko asked.

"Element X can be used to form one half of a devastating compound." Synaptak explained.

"Fair enough. But why come to earth?" Gwen asked.

"Most likely in search for the other ingredient, bicenthium alloy. It's very rare, but rumored to be found on your planet." The holograms of the atomic structures of Element X and bicenthium alloy neared each other. "When combined, the alloy and Element X form an explosive powerful enough to destroy an entire solar system."

Raf notice something that angers me. "But why does this stuff look so familiar?"

"Nerd alert!" Miko gave Raf a noogie. "I think the giant floating brain guy has it covered."

"Well I guess we should get back down there and begin looking for the-" Max was interrupted by Ultimos.

"Excuse me, but the galactic code is very clear on our protocols. Tini, launch observos one through four."

Tiny nodded and walked over to a control panel. She slide her finger down it and pressed four green buttons. It caused four probes to be deployed.

"The observos will scan every inch of the city, and locate the perpetrators." Ultimos explained. "In the meantime, perhaps a tour would be in order."

"We'd be honored." Max said.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but the galactic code is quite clear. Provision 373-837. No civilian visitors in secure areas of the ship, you, your granddaughter, and these two must remain on the bridge." Ultimos said to Max, Gwen, Raf, and Miko. "Jack, Arcee, Tini will show you two around."

Tini grabbed Jack and placed him on her shoulder. Tini headed off, with Arcee following her.

"Hey, how come they get to go?" Asked an annoyed Miko.

"For Jack, wearing the Omnitrix, grants him full access full hero status, and as for Arcee, her position as Optimus Prime's third lieutenant makes her an honored guest."

"Seiya suckers." Jack said while mockingly waving.

As Jack passed by Synaptak, the brain octopus glared at the human teen.

The rest of the Galactic Enforcers exited the bridge. The door closed, leaving Gwen, Max, Miko, and Raf left behind.

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine." Miko was mad that she didn't get to see the the rest of the ship. "Super jerks."

The first stop on the tour was the training room…

"Wow, I never thought I'd want to see the earth from space, but this is fine by me." Arcee said, remembering the battle on the space bridge eight months ago.

"Jack, here, I want to show you something." Ultimos said. Jack walked over to the blue skinned alien. He pressed his belt buckle and a table rose from the floor. From a compartment in the ceiling, a huge book with a brown cover that had a picture of the Milky Way galaxy with a golden shield below it fell onto the table.

The sound of the book crashing onto the table got Arcee's attention. When she saw the book, she was shocked at how thick it was.

"This is the galactic code of conduct. Every galactic enforcer must learn the rules so that they may live the rules.

"So how exactly am I supposed to memorize this entire book? I don't mind a bit of reading, but isn't this a bit much?"

"Well, the first twelve thousand pages are a bit dry, but after that, it's rather easy to get through."

"Just wondering, do you guys keep stuff that you confiscate from bad guys? Like their weapons and armor?"

"You mean the gallery?" Tiny said. "It where we keep any awards or confiscated items that we come across, would you like to see it?" She asked.

Arcee and Jack looked at each other. "Sure."

In the gallery…

Jack and Arcee were in awe at all the various weapons, devices and other things that were in the room. However, there were two things that caught Jack's attention. One was a gun, the other was a very familiar robot.

"Oh God no!" Jack had flashback to his encounter with the robot and how it kicked his and Arcee's asses. "Why do you have that?!"

"That's Hakaider. We didn't fight it, it was given to us by a man named Paradox."

"Wait, then he gave you the robot that's been haunting several of my nightmares?"

"Why are you afraid of this robot? He's not a threat to a hero like you."

"That robot almost killed me." Arcee said. "And it's not a robot, it's a cybernetic body for a human brain."

"I'm sorry if I brought up any harsh memories, but it's not gonna get out."

"Okay. That's good to know." Jack turned his attention to the gun that he noticed. "Why do you guys have the Diend driver?"

"The what?" Tini scratched her head.

Jack picked up the Diend driver, which was a gun that had a silver barrel, and was black with silver, gold, and cyan trim. "This. Kamen Rider Diend's transformation device."

"That's what it's called? When we confiscated it from a thief, we didn't know what it was called."

Jack pointed the Diend Driver at Hakaider and pulled the trigger. A single blue blast came out of the barrel, hitting Hakaider's head, knocking it off. "It's real. Tini, were there any cards with it?"

"How'd you know?" The female tetramand asked.

"On Earth, there's a TV show called Kamen Rider Decade." Arcee explained. "Diend uses this to transform." Arcee saw a stack of cards. She took the top one, which had Kamen Rider Diend's helmet on it. "Try this Jack."

"Okay." Jack put the card in a slot on the gun. He got into an area of the trophy room that didn't have anything in it. He extended the front of the gun.

"Kamen Ride." The gun announced.

Jack held the gun above his head and then said: "Henshin."

"Diend." Jack was turned into the hero/anti hero Kamen Rider Diend.

Jack/Diend looked at his now armored body in polished piece of the wall. "I like it, but I kinda wish it was green."

"It think that color suits you." Said Tini.

"Hmm, you think?" Jack pointed the Diend Driver at his reflection. "Bang!"

Ultimos and Sybaptak entered the room.

"Tini, who is this?" Asked Ulltimos.

"It's me, Jack." Diend said. He took the card that transformed him out of the Driver, reverting him back to Jack. Jack then took a look around the room. "Man, you guys got some cool stuff here." Jack holstered the Diend Driver.

"Put that gun down." Synaptack ordered. "It is far too dangerous for a being of such low mental capacity to use."

"He knows what it is and how to work it." Tini defended her crush.

"Arcee, is this true?" Ultimos asked the blue Autobot.

"Yeah. It's the Diend Driver, used by Kamen Rider Diend." Arcee just realized something. "Hold on, did you get it from a human named Daiki Kaito?"

"No, it was in the possession of a life form called an Ayakashi, who we captured an are waiting for the time walker to send it back to its home dimension." Synaptack explained.

Jack and Arcee turned to face each other. "Chinomanako." They said. Jack then explained what they said. "Chinomanako is the name of the Ayakashi that stole the Diend Driver from Daiki in episode Kamen Rider Decade, episode twenty four, The Arrival of the Samurai Sentai."

"Hmm. We'll have to speak to Paradox about this." Synaptak contemplated. "If this is true, then it would stand to reason that you and Arcee have knowledge of events that neither of you had experienced."

"Oh they are correct. A familiar voice spoke. Paradox appeared in the room. "And Jackson and Arcee don't have knowledge of interdimensional history, they just watch television."

"Paradox? What're you doing here?" Asked Jack.

"Taking the Diend Driver back to it's proper owner, as well as taking Chinomanako back to the World of Shinkenger."

"Well, if you say so." Jack handed paradox the Diend Driver.

"Thank you Jackson. But before I go, I have something to tell you."

"And that is..."

"Do not let the stubbornness of others keep you from saving the world." Paradox said. "Oh, and the alarm's gonna go off. Now." When Paradox said that, an alarm went off just as he said.

"What's that?" Jack asked.

"The Observos have discovered something."

In the bridge...

Jack, Arcee, and Tini ran in while Ultimos and Synaptik flew in.

On screen, they saw the view of the probe...

At a quarry...

The probe observed Vulkanus moving a large amount of ore from the side of the pit.

Sixsix barked orders in his native tongue.

"Yeah, well it would go faster if you helped too."

Back at the Galactic Enforcers' HQ...

"That's a strip mine, which means they're after Iron ore." Raf said.

"So wait, is that the missing ingredient? Iron ore?" Gwen asked.

"We'd better get down there." Ultimos said. He realized that things are about to get real. "But we could use some help. Jack, would you consider a temporary commission in the Galactic Enforcers?"

"Good idea." Tini said rather enthusiastically.

"Bad idea." Synaptak made it no secret that he didn't like Jack.

"It would seem that I am the deciding vote." Ultimos scratched his chin. Having already made up his mind, Ultimos spoke. "Let's get you in uniform."

Jack smiled.

Later...

A door opened and out walked Jack, who was wearing a suit similar to that of Kamen Rider #1, but there were some differences. The plates of armor that were green on #1 were gold on Jack's suit. What was normally black spandex like material was white. There was still a bug themed helmet, but it was gold with a light grey face plate. The eyes were light green lenses. The belt looked just like the typhoon belt, but instead of a turbine, there was what looked like an Omnitrix dial. Jack's gloves and boots were still silver, as were his gloves, however, the Omnitrix was still visible on Jack's wrist. The muffler(which is a type of scarf) that Jack wore was white.

"Ore, sanjou!" Jack announced. He struck a pose identical to what Kamen Rider Den-O would do. "I'm Masked Rider #10!"

"So, what about us?" Asked Max.

"I'm afraid the GCC is quite clear about the participation of non super powered beings. You'll be safer here." Ultimos said.

Synaptak fired a beam from his brain dome and projected a barrier that kept Gwen, Max, and Raf in the bridge. Strangely, Miko was nowhere to be found. Ah shit.

"Hey!" Gwen shouted, pounding on the barrier.

"Sorry guys. This is a superhero thing." Jack said, removing his helmet. "We'll be back after we kick Sixsix's can."

"Since when is Arcee a superhero?" Asked Gwen, pointing at the motorcycle that looked like Arcee's vehicle mode.

"Oh, this isn't Arcee. Arcee's over there." Jack pointed to Arcee, who was behind the barrier with the others. "This is my rider machine, I call it the Cyber-cyclone." Jack popped a piece of chocolate that somehow hadn't melted, into his mouth. He offered Ultimos some. "Want some?" Jack asked.

"Ah, local cuisine. I certainly wouldn't want to offend your planet's customs." Ultimos ate the chocolate.

Me: *Omega/O'malley laugh*

Jack, his motorcycle, and the Galactic Enforcers teleported away.

"Hey, where's Miko?" Max asked.

At the quarry...

Vulkanus was loading more ore into a container.

Sixsix said something. Seriously, why can't this fucker have subtitles? He pointed at the contain of Element X.

"Once the ore has been purified, it can be fused with Element X, and them boom!" He responded. "The galaxy will be at our feet."

Little did they know that Jack and the Galactic Enforcers were watching them.

"Now that we got them, we'll catch them completely off-" Jack noticed that something was wrong with the leader of this team. "Ultimos?"

Ultimos was shriveled up like a raisin. His skin was a light brown. He was shivering. "Cold." Ultimos whimpered. "So c-c-cold."

Ultimos fell over, but was caught by Synaptak.

"Oh jeeze! What's wrong with him?"

"It appears to be sucrotaxinite poisioning."

Miko made her precence known. "Um, in english please Nō no tako." (A.N: Nō no tako literally translates to brain octopus.

"Food poisio- Miko? What're you doing here?!"

"Um, don't question me, what's wrong with Ultimos?"

"He's been poisoned, but how?" Synaptak noticed something on Ultimos' lip. "What's this?" He wiped some of the chocolate that was on Ultimos.

"I just gave him a little. I didn't know, I was just trying to be polite." Jack said. Tini believed him, but Synaptak had just found an excuse to voice his dislike of Jack.

"You did this? I suspected you could not be trusted."

"Hold on, you're serious, chocolate is his super weakness? That's worse than Superman being weak to Kryptonite." Miko then thought that over. "Nah, that's still pretty pathetic."

Synaptak ignored the banter of the human girl. "Don't worry Tini, I have the situation under control." Synaptak laid Ultimos on the ground gently. He then glared at Jack. "You'll be dealt with after these rogues are behind bars." Synaptak floated above the others. He then made a dumb move by shouting: "Galactic Enforcers, engage!" That got the attention of Sixsix and Vulkanus.

"What'ya do that for retard?!" Miko angrily shouted.

"As the leader, I announce our presence with authority." Synaptak explained.

"And let the bad guys know we're here?" Miko asked.

"What's your point girl?"

Miko said nothing. She merely pointed at the dump truck that had been thrown at them. Synaptak's eyes when wide when he saw this.

Tini went to shield her crush and Miko, but Synaptak caught the dump truck with his telekinetic powers. He tossed the truck to the side.

"By provisions set forth in the galactic code of conduct, I order you to surrender."

Miko rolled her eyes when she heard this.

Sixsix took off and fired dozens of shots at the Galactic Enforcers. Vulcanus picked up a crane and threw it at them.

Miko got Ultimos out of the way and behind a building while Jack, Synaptak, and Tini took cover behind some nearby rocks.

Jack glared at synaptak through his helmet. "Does that ever work?" He frustratedly asked.

"Are you finally going to become a Tetramand?" Asked Tini.

"Under normal circumstances, then yes." TIni smiled when she heard Jack say that. "But Sixsix requires more than just brute strength to take him out."

"Let me guess, Grey Matter?" Miko asked.

"Nope, Upgrade." Jack activated the Omnitrix. He selected Upgrade and slammed the dial down.

Jack was instead turned into XLR8, however, XLR8's cloths were different. Instead of his normal white and black jumpsuit, his was now gold and white, which a blue visor.

"Works for me I guess." XLR8 said. He thought up a new plan. "Okay, instead of me turning Sixsix's weapons against Vulkanus, he's the plan, we split up. I'll draw their attention while you take out Vulkanus.

XLR8 then zoomed towards Vulcanus and Sixsix. He got below the hovering Sixsix and ran in a circle, causing a vortex to form, which shook the Sotoraggian.

Vulkanus had tossed a wrecking ball crane at XLR8, which he ran into. After coming to a stop, the vortex that had surrounded Sixsix vanished, causing him to fall back to Earth.

Vulkanus stomped his foot down near XLR8's head. He had held over his head the ore scoop, which he was planning on using to squashing the annoyance that had bothered him and his partner.

However, before he could do this, Tini ran up and delivered a left hook with both of her left arms. The punch knocked Vulkanus away from XLR8. Tini ran up to help the downed XLR8 get up.

"Thanks, but what're you doing?" Asked XLR8. "You were supposed to be taking on Sixsix."

"I'm sorry, but I had to protect you." She said, implying that she like Jack. The ore scoop was slammed down on Tini, restraining her. She was then tossed away by Vulkanus.

"Tini!" Synaptak shot a blast of blue energy at Vulkanus, knocking him down. Sixsix took aim at Synaptak. He deployed a blaster from his wrist that fired a red beam which scrambled Synaptak's brain, causing him to fall out of the sky. This left XLR8 alone to fight off the two villains.

Back at the Galactic Enforcer's base...

Gwen, Max, Raf, and Arcee were watching Jack and other superheroes get their asses handed to them.

"They're getting creamed!" Shouted Raf. "We gotta do something."

"Already on it." Max said as he typed something into the control console. "I'm programing in the coordinates from the spaceship. We should be beamed right down into the pit."

"Hold on. Should?" Gwen was a bit uneasy.

Max pressed the 'return' button. He, Gwen, Arcee, and Raf were teleported out of there.

Back on the ground...

XLR8 was dodging every blast that Sixsix shot at him. Sixsix began to use his two smaller arms to fling grenades at him. XLR8 made a beeline to a steel frame that was used to keep the pit from collapsing. XLR8 ran up it. When he got to the top, he propelled himself off of it, going towards Sixsix. He kicked Sixsix with his wheel feet, knocking him out of the air. The Kineceleran landed on his feet before running off.

The other four teleported in. Vulkanus tossed another ore scoop, which I now realize is the claw to a crane, at them. Arcee grabbed Gwen, Max, and Raf and got them out of the way before the claw could crush them.

Vulkanus ran to finish off the Galactic Enforcers, but Sixsix told him to grab the ore, which he did.

"Remind me again why we didn't stay in that nice safe spaceship?" Gwen asked as she rubbed her head.

As Sixsix and Vulkanus made their getaway, Sixsix fired a volley of three rockets at the side of the strip mine, causing a rockslide. XLR8 ran to join the others. When he got to them, the Omnitrix timed out.

Jack saw that Tini was having a hard time getting out of the contraption that trapped her. He had to do something or she, along with the others. "Ikimashou!" Jack shouted. "I gotta save Tini." He said.

Synaptak head that. Not wanting to be upstaged by a human, he got up and flew in front of Jack. "One side earthling." Synaptak pushed Jack away. When the debris got close to him, Synaptak projected an energy field around himself and the group, shielding them from the debris, however the shield was covered. It a psychic blast, the rubble was tossed away

"Nice job." Jack said to Synaptak. The brain octopus ignored the human dressed as a golden Ichigo. Synaptak went over to Tini to she if she was alright. She smiled when she saw her savior.

In Raf's mind, the idea of Jack stopping the rockslide as a human was laughable, so Jack most likely intended on inspiring Synaptak to do something. "That was, kinda like Optimus." Raf noted.

"How so?" Jack asked. "Did I sound like 2007 Peter Cullen?"

"No, the way you spoke. All you did was inspire Synaptak to act." Arcee explained/

Jack shrugged. "Must be a gift." Jack and the others saw Sixsix's ship take off and leave the pit.

"Scrap. We lost Sixsix and Vulkanus." Arcee was mad.

Synaptak said something that might help. "The bicenthium ore and the Element X can only be bound together with an enormous amount of heat."

"Like the forge of a steel mill?" Asked Gwen.

"Are there any such facilities in the area?" Asked Synaptak.

"Uh, hello? Pittsburgh? Steel town, USA?" Even Miko, the dumb one of Team Prime(and that's counting the members it will receive in the future), knew that the city was lousy with Steel mills.

"Interesting theory, but galactic code of conduct clearly states that-" A recovered Ultimos said as he joined the others.

"Forget protocol! This time we do it our way." Jack said.

"And which way would that be?" Asked Miko. "Ours as in Team Prime? Or ours as in Team Omnitrix?"

"Is there any difference?" Arcee asked. "Besides the fact that Team Prime acts in the shadow."

"But which one? Pittsburgh has," Arcee searched for the number. "eleven mills. If we search each one, it'll take too long."

"I got an idea." Jack said.

Later, at a steel mill...

Vulkanus held the ore in his hands as he dipped it into the molten steel. Sixsix walked on a catwalk that was above his detrovite cohort. He said something to Vulkanus.

"Don't blow a gasket, only the purest mixture combined with Element X can give us the explosion we want." Vulkanus explained. He pulled his hands out of the vat. "Perfect."

A claw grabbed the Element X. It brought it to a pair of large metal hands.

"What the?"

"Now I like a big explosion as much as the next guy, but I can't just let you two blow up the Earth." The white autobot with red and green trim known as Wheeljack said.

"Wheeljack? But how?" Vulkanus knew this Autobot.

"You and I have a score to settle sulfur breath." Wheeljack deployed his blasters. "But as to how I found you guys, well, as a friend of mine called. Oh, and I'd look up if I were you."

The mill started to shake. Vulkanus and Sixsix looked at the ceiling as it was torn open by Synaptak as he, Tini, and Ultimos levitated in.

Vulkanus shook his head. "You capes never learn." Sixsix knew something was up.

"Wrong!" Shouted Cannonbolt as he came charging at the two villains. "Galactic Enforcers, formation, formation S16!" Cannonbolt rammed into Sixsix, sending him into the guard rail.

"Galactic Enforcers, engage!" Ultimos commanded. Tini ran up to Vulkanus and punched him several times. Ultimos then flew into him with extended fists, pushing Vulkanus back towards Arcee, who kicked the Detrovite when he got within stiking distance of her. Her kick sent Vulkanus towards Wheeljack, who punched him into the vat of molten steel.

Miko was recording this to show Bulkhead. But she wasn't the only one recording the fight. Laserbeak was filming it as well.

Gwen, Max, and Raf ran into the control room.

Gwen got to the control panel and began to mess with the settings.

"Gwen, what're you doing?" Raf asked.

"Making steel's like baking a cake. Mess up the recipe and Element X won't bond to it."

Back in the fight, Sixsix shot lasers at Cannonbolt as he bounded away. He added missiles to the projectiles, but Cannonbolt managed to avoid them. When Cannonbolt bounced off a wall, Sixsix got a new idea. He deployed a melee weapon that looked like a read pipe. When Cannonbolt got close enough to him, Sixsix slapped the alter ego of Jack 10 to the side, sending him into one of the vats of molten metal, however, Synaptak caught Cannonbolt and moved him out of the vat. While he was did that. Arcee, in her smaller size side kicked Sixsix away as Wheeljack was brawling with Vulkanus.

Wheeljack was punched away, managing to grab the Element X off of Wheeljack. Ultimos and Tini ran up and continued the fight. Ultimos flew into Vulkanus while Tini punched him several times. Tini was thrown to the side whereas Ultimos was slammed into the floor. Tini ran up from Vulkanus and grabbed him, holding him in place so that Ultimos could deliver an uppercut that sent the detrovite criminal soaring. He dropped the Element X.

"Sixsix had recovered from Arcee's side kick. He deployed a red energized cable which he swung at Arcee, Cannonbolt, and Synaptak. Arcee and Cannonbolt dodged it while Synaptak was caught by it. He was shocked repeatedly. Cannonbolt curled up into a ball and rammed into the aggressor, causing him to drop the whip, releasing Synaptak, who fell to the floor.

As Tini and Ultimos made their way to Vulkanus, Ultimos said something. "Oh this is exhilarating, isn't it?" Ultimos was practically bursting with glee. "No plan, no rules, no-" He didn't see Wheeljack sailing towards them. Tini grabbed onto Ulimos and got him out of the way.

Vulkanus climbed out of the molten steel and saw the machinery moving. He looked to see Raf, Gwen, and Max messing with the controls. He glared at them. To stop them from ruining his plans, Vulkanus tossed a large chunk of partially melted ore that was about the size as a ball used for lobbing at the control area.

When the chunk hit, the window was broken, as was the computers. Thankfully, Max managed to get Raf out of the way, while Gwen went away from the ball of scrap.

"The controls are smashed!" Shouted Raf. "We can't mess with the mix from here."

As Cannonbolt bounded around, Sixsix tried to shoot him, desptie every shot being a miss. When Cannonbolt came into ram Sixsix, the Sotoraggian wasn't hit. However, Sixsix was hit when Cannonbolt bounced of the guardrail and hit him in the back, knocking him down and out.

Cannonbolt saw Vulkanus approached the vat with the mix that he was making. He didn't have time to react. Aree tried firing her blastes, but they weren't working against Vulcanus's armor. Vulcanus was about to put the Element X into the molten iron.

Tini slammed her top two fists onto the ground, causing a shockwave that made Vulkanus dropped the Element X, which was sent over Cannonbolt, who rushed to try to catch it. He caugt it, but found that it was too hot, which he vocally expressed. He set the container down and waited for it to cool off. He picked it up and saw that Vulkanus was walking towards him. He ran away from the detrovite.

Sixsix fired a boleadoras at Cannonbolt, making him fall over and drop the Element X. Vulcanus walked towards the container, stepping on Cannonbolt's shell in the process. He picked up the Element X and ran back to the container.

As Sixsix watched, Synaptak shot a beam at him, taking the Sotoraggian down by disabling his jet pack. He threw him into the path of Ultimos, who was flying at Sixsix with Tini. The team leader threw her at Sixsix, allowing the tetramand to deliver a powerful punch that knocked him out of the air.

The Galactic Enforcers had Sixsix surrounded. They were going to tackle him, but Sixsix had other ideas. He pressed some buttons on one of his gauntlets, which caused his armor to emit a red shockwave that threw the Enforcers back.

Sixsix turned to see Vulkanus run up a flight of stairs with the Element X in hand.

While he had his back turned, Arcee jumped up to a catwalk. She then jumped down, delivering a powerful kick, but not before shouting: "Rider kick!"

Sixsix was knocked back as he and Arcee continued to fight. Sixsix used the same shockwave attack on Arcee, taking her out of the fight.

Synaptak used his powers to grab a vat of molten steel. He held it above the two criminals. Tini ran up and punched the container that held the Element X, shattering it. She dashed away, letting Synaptak dump the molten metal on the two. Ultimos inhaled, then exhaled, his breath being like that of Superman. H quickly cooled the metal, trapping the two.

"Gotcha!" Wheeljack said after he caught the shard of Element X.

Cannonbolt joined the Galactic Enforcers in seeing the captured villians.

"Don't know if it's art, but I like it." Cannonbolt said. The Omnitrix timed out, reverting him back to Jack.

Later...

As Ultimos moved the two villians who were contained in steel, Jack spoke with Tini.

"Listen, about that, uh Tetramand thing..." Jack said. He was back to his normal clothing.

"I have found a new partner." Tini said. Synaptak flew over and wrapped one of his tentacles around her shoulder. "Check out the frontal lobes on him." She and Synaptak walked away.

Ultimos approached Jack. "Jack, your unorthodox methods are exactly what we need to defeat this new breed of criminal." Ultimos said. "We officially extend to you a full commission in the Galactic Enforcers." Ultimos held up a white badge that had the Galactic Enforcers' insignia and presented it to Jack

Jack grabbed it. "Thanks, but no thanks." Jack glanced at his friends and family. "I'm already part of a team of heroes. Besides, my mom would have a fit if I decided to run off and join some space superhero team." He handed the badge back to Ultimos.

"Keep it, in hopes that we meet again someday." Ultimos said. He walked over to his comrades. "Galactic Enforcers, away!" The team of alien superheroes, and the captured villains were teleported away.

Miko thought Jack was mental for turning down Ultimos' offer. "So, did you really mean all of what you said to Ultimos about being part of team of heroes?"

"Sorta."

"Sorta?" Arcee was confused by what Jack meant.

"It'd be cool and all, but who wants to hang with a bunch of wackos like that? I'm better off with you guys, the type of madness I'm used to."

Miko glared at Jack. Max bent down. He whispered this into Miko's ear: "I'm wanted to surprise Jack, but you'll get your chance to get back at him tomorrow."

"Huh?" Miko asked.

"Just wait and see."

Chapter end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: Like I said, I had a lot of fun with this chapter. I took advantage of the Galactic Enforcers being super heroes and used that for a bunch of Kamen Rider references, much like how Wrath of the Antagonizer had a lot of Fallout references.
> 
> First of we have Jack's whole fantasy sequence from the beginning of this chapter, which was inspired by a story I conceptualized, but never wrote called Transformers: The First. The comic book he was reading was in fact called Kamen Rider The First, which for those who don't know, Kamen Rider The First was a reboot of the Kamen Rider series.
> 
> Second, this chapter confirmed that the Kamen Rider series not only exists in this timeline as a show, but it exists as its own timeline as reality. It won't come into play until much, much later.
> 
> And then we have Jack being Masked Rider #10. What we learn later on actually makes Jack Masked Rider #5, but that's a story for another day.
> 
> Then we have Jack saying 'Ore sanjou', which is Momotaro's catchphrase. It literally translates to 'I have arrived.'
> 
> Following that, we have mention of Chinomanako, Ayakashi(or Nylock for power ranger fans, but Chinomanako was one of less than ten Shinkenger monsters who wasn't adapted into Power Rangers). In the episodes The Arrival of the Samurai Sentai and Heretic Rider go Forth!, he stole the Diend Driver from Daiki, and became the first sentai monster to use rider powers.
> 
> And yes, Jack turning into Diend was a one time thing. But it won't be the last time he transforms into a Kamen Rider.


	35. Who is Attacking the Wedding?

Inside the Rust Bucket…

Jack was in some sort of discomfort. "Don't think I can take this much longer." Groaned Jack.

"Just hold on. Almost there." Max said.

Raf approached Max with a shallow box the tools a tailor has.

"Uh! Can't breath!" Jack groaned.

Max reached into the box and pulled out a pair of scissors. "Don't quit on me now Jack!" Max shouted.

"Gotta get outa here. Going, hero." Jack reached for the Omnitrix, but Max grabbed his hand.

"No you're not." Max said. Jack was revealed to be wearing a maroon formal suit with a red tie. "Save the drama, will you please? I just need to make sure this tux fits."

From behind a curtain, Miko spoke up. "Can we come over there?" She asked. I promise I won't laugh."

"Okay." Max opened the curtain, letting Gwen, Arcee, and Miko see Jack, who was obviously not liking this.

Miko broke her promise not to laugh and laughed anyway.

"Oh cheer up Jack. You look handsome in it." Arcee rubbed her partner's head. She noticed that Jack was having problems breathing, so she loosened the tie.

"You mean it Arcee?"

"Sure, I might've known cliffjumper longer, but he never had the courtesy to look like this."

"Well, it still doesn't help that I'm not just going to the the wedding, but I'm also going to be in it. Seriously, why do I have to be the one of the groomsmen, I barely know this guy."

"Shinnosuke got food poisoning last night at the bachelor party, so you're the replacement." Max said. "Besides, it's only for one weekend."

"Well I'm glad we're here." Gwen said. "I've never been a bridesmaid before."

"Jack, be careful with this tuxedo, it's a family heirloom. It was mine when I was your age." Max said. "Then, for some completely unknown reason, your mom wore it. Don't ask. And now you're wearing it."

"Oh lucky me. I get to where the tuxedo that my mom wore." Jack said sarcastically.

"Just be careful with it please."

"Smile and say blackmail!" Miko shouted as she took a picture of the suffering Jack.

There was a knock on the door to the rust bucket.

Max opened the door and saw that it was June, who was wearing a red and blue dress.

"I just came to check on you guys- Oh I remember that tux, but not why I wore it."

"Mom, what're you doing here?"

"You think I'd miss my cousin's wedding?"

Later…

Jack, Arcee(who wasn't using her Sadie disguise, but was still human sized), Max, Gwen, Miko, Raf, and June were walking around the area outside the country club where the wedding was being held.

It was what you'd expect, plants such as roses and willows to set the mood, swans in the lake that went around where the ceremony was in place. A gazebo for the band I guess.

"Uncle Max." Said a black haired man who wore a green polo shirt and blue jeans. With him was a woman wearing a pearl necklace who wore tan pants and a salmon blouse.

"Joel. And this must be Camille. Congratulations."

"Arcee, put you ID mask on now!" Miko shouted.

"Arcee, what's her problem?" Joel asked the blue autobot.

Arcee rolled her optics. "Don't mind Miko, she doesn't know much."

"Any way, Uncle Max, could you and June try to talk someone into my parents?"

"Max!" A man and a woman walked up to the group. The man had grey hair and wore a white polo shirt with a light brown jacket on it, he wore a cowboy hat. The woman was probably of Asian descent. She wore a dark red coal, a blue shirt, and a brown skirt, and had black hair that was slightly blue.

"Betty Jean. Gordon." Max knew these people.

"Ah, Max." Gordon said. He then saw Arcee waving at him. "We're so glad you're here. Maybe you should talk some sense into these kids."

"What's going on?" Max asked.

Gordon leaned on Max's shoulder. "Ah, they don't know what they're doing. This whole wedding is a terrible mistake."

"The whole wedding's a terrible mistake?" Asked Max. He had played right into Gordon's hands.

"See, listen to your uncle Max."

Jack was having a hard time comprehending this. "How can the whole wedding be a terrible mistake?" Asked Jack. "Something's up."

Miko and Raf turned to face each other. They just shrugged.

"June, you understand you this will end badly." Gordon said.

"Uh, what? I don't think I was ever married to an alien, let alone one that my dad didn't like."

Arcee was having enough of this. "Gordon, isn't scrap like this what caused your early retirement in the first place?"

"No, those charges were never proven. All I'm saying is that the kids don't know what they're doing."

"Now Gordon," A new man, or should I say Mann, said. "The kids are grown ups, who're we to get in the way?" Asked the man, who wore a dark lime green polo shirt and a pair of brownish tan pants. He had black hair that was beginning to grey. Next to him was a woman with brown hair who wore a dark purple scarf, a dark grey long sleeve shirt and a black skirt. They were followed by a brown man who wore a black tuxedo and a black bow tie.

Camille introduced her parents. "These are my parents Mr and Mrs Mann."

"I'm sorry we had to meet under such," She raised one of her eyebrows. "awkward circumstances."

"So are we." Betty Jean and Gordon said at once.

"I know the feeling." Jack said.

Without saying another word to each other, the parents of both the bride and the groom left.

"Maybe this won't be so boring after all." Miko said with a smile on her face.

"Something's not right." Jack paced back and forth.

Camille went to got talk with her parents.

Joel sighed. "Uncle Max, this has been a nightmare. Not just the families, but the wedding dress got lost, the photographer's camera got smashed, all the flowers up and died, everything's going wrong."

"Don't worry cuz. I'm sure it'll all work out." June assured her cousin.

"Excuse me for interrupting, but I'm Gwen, one of the bridesmaids, and I have a few questions" before Gwen could do her best Miko impression, Joel place his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh, I'm sorry Gwen, didn't you here? Camille's friend Kiriko was able to make it after all." Gwen pouted when she heard this."But her brother Go couldn't make it, so we're short one ring bearer."

"I'll do it. How hard can it be?" Raf volunteered.

"Well, that sorts that out,"

"Please tell me Shinnosuke got better too?" Pleaded Jack.

"Uh, no, sorry Jack, Shinnosuke still isn't feeling good. Nothing changes for you, except who you'll dance with at the reception."

"Dance?!" Jack wasn't expecting this. "I don't know how to dance! Arcee, you heard me admit that."

Arcee played an audio clip of Jack from a long while ago. "No I'm not going to the dance. Experience suggests I should never cut a rug, unless replacing a carpet. Be careful? Seriously? This is Alamo. I love you. I love you too mom, I gotta go. Hello beautiful. Where have you been all my life?" That was a bit more than what Jack wanted Arcee to play.

June was laughing at what she just heard. "So that's what you said to Arcee when you first met her?"

"See, I can't dance."

"Then I guess you'd better learn then. You don't wanna look like a mega dweeb out there in front of everybody, ain't that right June?" Joel said with a grin on his face. "And also figure out what you meant by cutting a rug."

Jack gulped.

The following night…

In the Rust Bucket 2, Raf was reading a book while Max dusted off the tux that Jack would wear to the wedding.

Raf noticed something was up. "It's too quiet. Where's Jack?"

"I think he said something about going downstairs to take a dip in the lake.

Outside…

Jack was wearing his black and white swim trunks as he walks to the lake. He had a towel in hand. He walked by a truck that had come from a bakery. When he walked by the back, Jack peeked inside. He saw a bunch of pastries. He thought of eating one of them. It it wasn't worth the risk. If he did, he would've gotten in trouble since the guy delivering the pastries came back while Jack looked into the truck.

"Don't mean to cause any trouble." Jack said. He proceeded to the lake. When Jack left, the delivery man was grabbed by what might've been an arm made out of s clay like substance.

The delivery man screamed as he was dragged into the forest. Seconds later, the delivery man walked out of the trees, but his eyes were glowing purple.

"Now to deliver a wedding present they'll never forget."

Jack got to the lake. He saw a sign that read 'no swimming'.

"No swimming? Now what'm I supposed to do for fun?" Jack asked himself.

He heard the squealing of tires, indicating that there was a vehicle moving rather quickly. Jack looked in the direction of the noise and seconds later, the pastry delivery truck burst through a wooden gate. Jack got a mischievous smile on his face. The truck was heading for the gazebo. Jack ran towards the truck before selecting Cannonbolt. He transformed into that alien.

Cannonbolt rammed the delivery truck, destroying it. "Oh yeah!" Cannonbolt was experiencing premature jubilation. He looked behind him to see that some of the chairs were on fire. He now kinda wishes he turned into Big Chill instead. He had to put out the fires somehow, so he rolled up into a ball, and tried putting out the fires by crushing the chairs, but seemed to do nothing. If anything, it caused the flames to spread faster.

Cannonbolt tried blowing out the flames like they were candles. He also tried hitting them with a wet rag, but that somehow only made it worse.

"Scrap. This isn't working! I need water. Lots and lots of, water!" Cannonbolt remembered that he was by a lake. He got an idea.

Using the wreckage of the truck like a ramp, Cannonbolt got high up in the air. Before he came crashing down he managed to shout: "Rider Cannonbolt cannon ball!" The splash he made caused water to get sent up into the air, which came down as discount rain. It extinguished the flames.

When Cannonbolt got out of the lake, two blasters were pointed at him. "Boy, the lifeguards around here must be pretty strict."

"An Arburian Pelarota?" Gordon couldn't believe his eyes.

"An alien wedding crasher! Who sent you?" Betty Jean demanded answers.

"No body, I swear. I don't even want to be here!" Cannonbolt explained.

"What is going on?" Asked Joel as he, Max, Gwen, Arcee, and June ran up.

"This alien was trying to ruin the wedding."

"I was trying to save the wedding!"

"Uh, it seems like he's telling the truth." Max said, trying to not say that the Alien that Joel's psychotic parents wanted to blast was their great nephew.

"Still, better not take the chance." Betty Jean and Gordon charged up their blasters. "You know aliens. Can't trust any of them."

"Ahem!" Arcee drew the attention of the two psychos away from Cannonbolt and to herself.

"No offense Arcee."

"Offense taken in full."

"Camouohlant vaporis." Gwen said quietly. A cloud of steam appeared, allowing Cannonbolt the opportunity to escape.

"He's getting away! Blast it!" Gordon shouted. He and Betty Jean fired in the direction of the lake, but not one of their shots hit anything.

"Put those things away!" Shouted Joel as he slapped his father's blaster out of his hands. "This is a wedding, not a shooting range."

"But that thing is still out there."

"It doesn't matter. We want you to promise. No more weapons for the rest of the weakened."

While Joel berated his parents, Cannonbolt hid in the bushes on the others idea of the lake. He heard what sounded like stepping in mud. He looked to see a Vaughn humanoid blob mover out of the broken gate. Cannonbolt rolled after it but found that it was gone.

"Hey, where'd it go?" He asked. As Cannonbolt scratched his head in confusion of large tendril with two 'arms' that was made of of a mud like material was behind him it rose up and was poised to strike. Cannonbolt got out of the way and rolled a good distance away before the mud being struck him. He then turned and rolled back to the mud creature. He jumped and landed on it, just as the Omnitrix started to time out. The mud monster took that as his cue to leave. Right before the Omnitrix timed out, the mud monster slapped Cannonbolt away toward the bushes. When the Omnitrix times out, it caused him to be reverted back to Jack. Jack groaned as he landed in the bushed.

The mud monster, which had glowing purple eyes oozed into the sewers. "I hate weddings." Jack said as he rubbed his forehead. He noticed that on his chest, there was a bit of the 'mud' that made up the creature's body. "But I do love a good mystery."

Jack walked back to the original Rust Bucket. He got a small glass jar out of the covered and put the alien mud into the jar. He labeled it 'Sample from attacker' Jack changed into his cloths that he kept in the original Rust Bucket.

June, Gwen, and Max entered and saw the bruise on Jack's forehead. Max sat across from Jack as June sat next to him and was applying an icepack to Jack's forehead. Gwen took, a seat in the passenger's chair

"I guess I forgot to mention that grooms parents were plumbers, and the bride and her family are aliens." Max said.

"Aliens? They don't look like aliens."

"They're just in disguise for the wedding." June explained. "Actually, they're some of the toughest, nastiest, meanest beings in the galaxy. We call them sludge puppies. The plumbers and the sludges have been going at it for hundreds of years, all across the Galaxy. But a few years ago, their children, Joel and Camille, met and became close, a truce was forged from that single relationship."

"This is the first marriage between a mud alien and a human. It could put an end to years of fighting."

"And someone obviously doesn't want that to happen." Jack said. "And I intend to find out who the culprit is!"

"Jack, that's a bit ambitious." June said. "We'll all do it together."

"Well, we can all help, but who's actually started on the case?" Asked Jack.

"What'dya mean?"

Jack placed the jar that had a sample of the alien that attacked him on the table. "Here's the culprit. Now we have to get samples from all possible suspects."

"And then what?"

"Take them to Ratchet so he can run tests on them to see if any match. I'll do that while you guys see if any of our suspects had any motives for committing this crime."

Later, inside the country club…

Gordon, Betty Jean, June, Max, Joel, Camille, Mrs Mann, and Mr Mann were sitting around a round table, eating dinner.

The Manns held up their wine glasses and held them in a way that showed that they didn't want to cause trouble. However, Gordon and Betty Jean were keeping an eye on them.

Jack, Miko, Raf, and Gwen sat a smaller round table that had a pink table cloth around it.

Two girls walked up, one had long blond hair and blue eyes. She wore a black sleeveless shirt that had a white star on it, I'm addition, she also wore a red skirt. On her face, she had two sets of two markings that resembled whiskers. She seemed to be about Raf's age.

The other girl was Japanese. She had brown hair and eyes, and wore purple sleeveless shirt and light grey pants. Around her waist was a red belt. This one was a bit older than Jack.

"I'm so excited to be the flower girl!" The younger girl said excitedly. "Did you know we get to dance in front of everyone?" She grabbed onto Raf's cheeks. "Isn't that great?" She asked.

"Yeah great!" Raf said, his voice sounding muffled.

"Did anybody ever tell you how cute you are?" She said. "You're like some kinda puppy dog!"

The younger girl ran off, giggling as she did so.

The older Japanese girl was still present. "Jack, you and I will also dance."

"Um sorry…" Jack didn't know her name.

"Kiriko."

"Sorry Kiriko, but I can't."

Kiriko grabbed Jack's ear. "Oh, and why's that?"

"Ow ow ow! I'm trying to solve a case. And I can't dance."

"Is that true?" Kiriko asked. "Then you better learn how to dance, or else." Kiriko then walked away.

"Oh scrap I'm doomed!"

"Don't worry Jack I took cotillion for three years." Jack looked at Gwen like she was crazy. "Cotillion, it means, never mind. Simply put I know how to dance, I can teach you."

"Thanks Gwen, but right now, I have work to do." Jack said. He placed a circular device into his right wrist. Gwen, Miko, and Raf were looking at him with wide eyes. Jack flipped a switch on it and turned invisible.

"Uh, what just happened?" A confused Miko asked.

"Stealth Boy. Got it from an old friend of ours."

"Wash." Raf, Miko, and Gwen said.

"Yep." Jack stood up from his chair and walked over to the table with the adults. Since he knew that only Camille's family were aliens, Jack focused his efforts on them.

As Camille and Joel looked into each others eyes while they held hands, the pastry deliverer got mad and had an outburst.

"Camille! I'm not letting you marry any filthy human without a fight!" He angrily shouted. His eyes turned solid white before he turned into a monster made out a purple mod like substance that towered over any human. The monster was mildly humanoid, possessing two arms, but no legs.

Camille gasped when she saw this alien. "It's my ex boyfriend! How'd he find out about the wedding?"

"Who the hell invites their Ex to their wedding?" Jack said to himself as he scraped a bit of Mr Mann into a jar. He did the same with Mrs Mann.

Camille's ex boyfriend smashed a table and tossed another one in the direction of the kids.

That's gotta be the thing that attacked me last night." Jack said. He activated the Omnitrix and turned into Diamondhead.

The Ex boyfriend continued to trash the event. "Without our gear were sitting ducks!" Gordon said.

Camille's ex boyfriend grabbed Joel and held him less than a foot from his face. "If I can't have Camille, the neither can you, you meat puppet." The arm that he used to hold Joel was sliced by a disk of crystal that came out of nowhere.

"Back off the man who might be hospitalized by an explosion in a few years." Diamondhead, who was still invisible said.

"Who said that?" The ex boyfriend asked.

Diamondhead pressed the deactivate button in the stealth boy that he wore, revealing himself.

"A Petrosapien? What're you doing here?"

"I'm just a passing through alien hero, remember that, plus, I'm a friend of the groom."

Camille's ex boyfriend glared at Diamondhead. "Then you're no friend of mine." He swung one of his arms at Diamondhead, however the Petrosapien dodged it and then fire several crystal shards at the sludge puppy. When the shards hit the Lenopan, they were absorbed into its body.

"Uh oh." Diamondhead knew he was in trouble. The uni exited guest slapped him into a pillar and while Diamondhead recovered, he struck the Petrosapien again, sending him through the pillar as well as another one.

Diamondhead was tossed into a spa. When he got up. He turned his right fist into its diamond shooting form and looked around for the attacker. He heard something moving from behind him. He turned around, shouting "Gotcha!" It turned out it was just a woman, who was trying to relax. She screamed when Diamondhead pointed his crystal launcher at her. "Sorry lady. I thought you were some kinda alien." The woman walked away. Caught off guard, Diamondhead was grabbed by the sludge puppy. He was brought in close to it. In response, Diamondhead punched the Lenopan, causing him and the attacker to fall into a jacuzzi. In the water, the ex boyfriend started to melt, turning the water dark purple. Diamondhead climbed out. He was covered in purple mud. June, Max, and Gwen ran up to him. "Ew." Diamondhead was rather disgusted but the idea that he was covered in an alien's goo.

"It was a dirty job." Max joked while rubbing the back of his head. "But somebody had to do it."

"At least you have another sample to send to Ratchet." June said. "Oh, and look what I got for you." June held up a shot glass with more of the purple mud. There was a note on it that read 'bodyguard'. She handed it to Jack after the Omnitrix timed out.

The following evening…

"We are not canceling the wedding!" An angered Camille said.

"Civilians will be at the wedding tomorrow. What if there's another alien attack?"

"Maybe just put if off until after I complete my investigation."

"At least let us bring our plumber gear." Betty Jean said. "Investigation, what investigation?"

"I'm trying to figure out who's attacking the wedding."

"Jack, you're not a detective." Joel said. "And as for your request mom, this is a no weapons wedding. Only Arcee's allowed to bring her blasters because they're a part of her body."

"Everyone relax! There's no need for weapons now." Said Mrs Mann. "It's all over."

"I wish I could believe that." Max said.

Jack walked away from the group. He got on his phone and dialed Ratchet.

"Hello?" Asked Ratchet.

"Ratchet, I need you to do some forensics." Jack said.

"For what reason?"

"I'm at my mom's cousin's wedding, and it was attacked by a sludge puppy."

"So let me guess, up you need me to help you search for clues?"

"No. I need you to run some tests on a collection of DNA samples from the four suspects."

"Hold on, you need me to run test to find who the assailant is?"

"No, I need you to find who matches the attacker from yesterday. Could you do that?"

"Very well. I'm opening a ground bridge at your location."

The bluish green vortex of a ground bridge opened, getting the attention of the families of the bride and groom.

"What the?" Joel didn't know what this was.

"It's a ground bridge, but why would the 'bots, or the 'cons come here?"

They saw Jack's shadow in the light the vortex generated. "June, is that your boy?"

"It is. Jack where're you going?!" Shouted June.

"To the base! Ratchet gonna help me with the case." Jack walked through the portal and into the Autobot base.

When he got into the base, Jack saw that Optimus was working hard on decoding one of the entries in the Iacon archives. Optimus looked over his shoulder and saw Jack. "Hello Jackson, did you find the relic I sent you the coordinates to?"

"Yeah, we did but it wasn't anything spectacular."

"How so?" Ratchet asked.

"It was just a model of a space bridge, that was on display in an art museum in Pittsburgh." Jack said. "Care to explain why your mentor would put a model into one of the pods for the valuable items?"

"As for that, I have no answer. Jackson, why are you here right now? You said that there's a wedding, do you not have to get to it?"

"The ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow, so I have time to run my investigation as to who's responsible for the attacks." He walked over to thee leafed human area. "Ratchet, I think you'll need these." Jack placed the five jars into Ratchet's hand. Each one had a different label. One was labeled 'Perpetrator', another was labed 'Mr Mann', after that, another one was labeled 'Mrs Mann'. The final two were labeled 'Bodyguard' and 'Camille's ex boyfriend' respectively.

"Who's Mr and Mrs Mann?" Asked Ratchet.

"Camille's parents. Oh, did I mention that Camille and her family are aliens?"

"No, you did not." Optimus said.

"Well, they are." Jack said. "Ratchet, while you work on this, could you please send me back to the wedding?"

"Why? I thought you said it's tomorrow?"

"It is, but I need to learn how to dance by tomorrow."

"Dance?" Ratchet was confuse.

Optimus spoke up. This was one of the few times where he would be the one to explain an earth custom. "At wedding, it is traditional for the groomsmen and the bridesmaids to dance with each other. But why do you need to learn how to dance?"

Ratchet played the audio file from when Jack first met Arcee.

After it played. Optimus had a few questions. "What is this 'rug' you spoke of?"

Jack shrugged. "Hey Ratchet, mind emailing me a copy of that?"

"Why, I thought you were embarrassed by it?"

"Well, yeah I am, but that did lead to the three greatest things that ever happened to me."

"And those would be?" Optimus asked.

"Being given the Key to Vector Sigma by you Optimus, then meeting you guys, and finally, the greatest thing that's ever or will ever happen to me, finding the Omnitrix."

"Hmm. Interesting. Why would you place being given the key over, say beating Vilgax?"

"I didn't beat him. He's currently chilling in the Null Void with Vince, and I really hope he stays there." Jack said. "Now, could you send me back to the wedding so that I could get some dance lessons from Gwen?"

Later, in the Rust Bucket…

The waltz was playing as Gwen showed Jack how to dance at the reception. Jack was having trouble moving his feet in tune with the song.

"Jack, it's not that hard. You just gotta let it flow gently."

"Sorry, but I just can't do this."

Gwen, knowing that Jack was a fan of Kamen Rider, got an idea to help Jack get the handle of this.

She switched the song to a song that Jack would know.

As a piano played, Gwen took Jack's hands. The two of them swayed back and forth in tune with the song. Joining the piano, were violins, as well as various light wind instruments.

A woman started singing.

'Daiji ma hita kazoeru nara anata,'

'Douzo watashi wo oyayubi ni shitte'

After a bit of a break in song, where only the instrument could be heard, the singer continued.

'Tatoe utsusemi no karada hanaretemo'

'Nee kitto yo.'

The singer took a break for a few seconds before continuing.

'Anata koso ga ashkita ni tsutsuku, yume'

She sped up her singing a bit.

'Anata dake ga aoku kagayaka, hoshi'

She increased her volume.

'A~ Watsurenaide'

'A~ Kono yakusoku'

She went back to her previous volume.

'Deatte, yokatta to, mayowazu ieru~,'

She got louder again.

'Forever! Futari wo, even musubu no.'

There was a long break in the singing, which gave one time to look at Jack and Gwen, who were moving rather gracefully.

The singing started up again.

'Suki na tokoro ageru no nara watashi'

'Ryoute wo yubi ottemo tarinai'

'Amai kuchibiru mo tereta hohoemi mo,'

'Sou, subete.'

'Kokoro koso ga toki wo tabi suru, fune'

'Kokoro dake ga unabara terasu, tsuki'

She increased the volume of her voice.

'A~ Namida saw mo'

'A~ Koete yukeru'

She decreased the volume of her voice.

'Donna ni, mijikaku temo, tokimeita hibi~'

She got louder again.

'Forever~! Nozomi wo~ eien ni takusu no~'

'Forever~! Nozomi wo~ eien ni takusu no~'

The woman was done singing, and for the remained of the song, the increments played, getting softer and softer until, they ceased making noise.

"Wow, that wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be."

"See, even you can do it. All you really gotta re her is to not step on her toes."

"Aw, that's adorable!" June, said, holding a video camera in hand. She had filmed Jack and Gwen dancing to the song.

"Mom!"

The next day…

The wedding was going off without a hitch, so far at least. Joel and Camille were looking into each other's eyes. Next to Joel stood Raf, who was wearing a yellow and black tux that had a black bow tie.

"Dearly beloved," The justice of the peace began. "we are gathered here to witness the union between Joel and Camille.

The tie Jack wore was too tight. He saw his grandfather giving him a thumbs up.

"I am so proud." One would think Max meant he was proud of Jack, but then, "Just look at that tux."

"This young bride and groom are an inspiration," Camille's parents smiled. "they remind us that love conquers all." Joel's parents shot angry glares at the Manns. The justice of the peace continued to speak.

Jack loosened his tie. When he saw the Mann family's response to the hostility put forth by Gordon and Betty Jean, something clicked in his mind. Images flashed before his eyes. It all made sense to Jack. Mr and Mrs Mann were being far too nice. They're one of the only people who could've told Camille's ex about the wedding, and it wasn't Camille who invited him, seeing as you never, ever, ever, invite your ex to the wedding. Add to that the fact that DNA from the ex boyfriend matched that from the attacker from to night ago, and the fact that there's a deep seated hatred of the plumbers among the sludge puppies, which translates into a desire for the war between the two sides to continue, and Joel and Camille's marriage might put a stop to the fighting, it would only make sense for two warmongers to distort the wedding that would result in a peace treaty.

"If anyone has a reason why these two should not wedd, let them speak now or forever hold their peace."

"I've got it together!" Exclaimed Jack. "My brain is in Top Gear!" Jack straightened his tie.

"Sir, do you object?" The justice of the peace asked.

Jack saw his mother shooting him looks that said 'I am going to kill you'. Jack then spoke. "It's not I who objects to this wedding, rather, it's the parents of the bride." Jack pointed at Mr and Mrs Mann.

"Huh?" Joel and Camille,were dumbfounded.

"Everyone, ask yourselves, have Mr and Mrs Mann ever shown any signs of hostility towards anyone?"

"They're nice people is what they are." Joel said. "Let's just move on."

"Silence man slave! Despite the fact that Gordon and Betty have shown nothing but hostility towards those two, the Manns have been acting nice. Too nice. Disgustingly nice. Canadians are telling you to tone it down, that's how nice you two are."

"What're you getting at young man?" Asked the justice of the peace.

"In my experience, nobody who's mentally sound acts this nice on a regular basis. And since you two are very much anchored in reality, your politeness means one thing and one thing only. You have something to gain."

"That's preposterous, we'd never sabotage our daughter's wedding."

"Exactly. You didn't. You hired someone to take the fall for you. Enter Camille's Ex Boyfriend, who according to the bride, should've been unaware that there even was a wedding, despite the fact that he did in fact, show up on at least two separate occasions. One being last night, the other being the night before when he crashed a truck in an attempt to destroy this set up. And it was definitely you two, seeing as Camille wouldn't be dumb enough to do such a thing, you never invite the ex."

The justice of the peace was about to speak, but Jack covered his mouth with his hand. "Ah, but we haven't delved into why they would do such a thing. You see, Mr and Mrs Mann are from a race of alien called Sludge Puppies, who're currently in the middle of a war with a group known as the plumbers. And since Joel and Camille's marriage would be the first step on the path to peace, Camille's parents want to make sure that that first step is on a landmine."

"Your point is?" Gordon asked.

"My point is, the true masterminds are Mr and Mrs Mann. But hey, I could be wrong. You may continue."

"Does anyone else object?" The justice of the peace was hit by a glob of, purple mud.

"Yeah, we have something to say." Mr Mann said, his voice being much deeper.

Joel's parents stood up and their jaws dropped. The Mann family's bodyguard covered them in a pile of mud, leaving only their heads exposed. Most of the guests ran away from the attacking aliens, however, Miko, Raf, June, Max, and Jack stayed, as did Joel and Camille.

The Manns and their bodyguard approached Jack, Joel, and Camille.

"You hit the nail square on the head." Mr Mann said. "And now this wedding, along with every human here, are about to be canceled."

Camille still couldn't believe that her parents would do such a thing. "Mom, dad, what're you doing?"

"As the little detective said, planting a landmine."

"See, I was right. It was her mom and dad who planned every single one of the dirty tricks."

Despite being stuck in the muck, Betty Jean still felt like talking smack. "See, what'd I tell yah, once a sludge, always a sludge."

"So the ex boyfriend was to keep suspicion off of themselves?" Max reasoned.

"See what happens when you don't listen to me?" Jack said.

"There will be no wedding, and no truce." Mr Mann grabbed Joel and held him up in the air.

"But you said you like me!" Panicked Joel.

"We lied."

Camille ram up to her father. "Stop it! No!" She begged.

"Stay of this Camille." Mrs Mann growled. "This is for your own good."

Mrs Mann whipped Camille, sending the only good lenopan in the group back.

Jack, having enough of this, decided it was time to transform. From behind the gazebo, he activated the Omnitrix and transformed.

As Joel tried to get out, Camille recovered, she looked at her parents and saw the evil look in their eyes.

A fireball hit them. The source of the fire was Heatblast. "Ore, sanjou!" He struck a pose that was very similar to one of Momotaros'. Joel fell to the ground, which caused Heatblast to look behind him to see Joel.

The smoke from the blast cleared, showing that the Manns had bits of them missing. "Another wedding crasher. Why'd we even bother with invitations?"

They shifted Into their true lenopan forms, which were three legged beings that stood almost twice as high as Heatblast.

Mr Mann slapped Heatblast across the lake. They then went after the Pyronite.

Gordon and Betty had been freed from the mud by Max and June. They were going to help Jack, but the shadow of the bodyguard loomed over them. They looked up to see him about to strike them with a spiked mace are. They got out of the way when he began to strike.

Gwen thought as if she had to do something. "Stingu invisibus.. Two chunks of rock floated out of the ground. She flung them at the bodyguard. When the passed the rough him, Gwen realized all she did was make him mad. She giggled nervously before running away.

"What're we going to do?" Asked Betty Jean. "We're defenseless."

"You promised to leave the Plumber gear at home, I didn't." Max handed Gordon and Betty Jean each a grey cylinder with a blue button the to. When they pressed the button, the cylinders unfolded into a pair of blasters.

"Ha! Just like the old days."

June pulled out the gun she had gotten from Rojo.

The bodyguard tried to catch Gwen, but the human teen was too fast to be caught, however, when she stopped to take a break, he managed to grab onto her.

A blast of yellow energy hit the bodyguard, blowing his head apart. He reformed his head and looked at who shot him, which was June. He extended his torso and arms. He then threw a punch at them.

With Heatblast...

Heatblast had gotten to a forest, where after being struck by the parents of the bride, he was sent flying into a tree.

Mr Mann raised his arms up and was poised to strike Heatblast. However, the pyro its dodged the attack, as well as the next one, and the one after that.

Heatblast then fired a stream of fire at them. "Aren't you guys a it old to be playing with mud?" He quipped. He was caught off guard by Mrs Mann, who pinned him to a tree. She got closer to him and raised up her other arm, forming it into a spike fist.

Back at the gazebo…

Max, June, Gordon, and Betty were firing at the bodyguard, their shots doing little to no damage. Raf, Miko, and Gwen had taken cover.

Joel and Camille were forced to watch as their families fight each other. Camille was starting to loose her cool. "This was supposed to be my special day. And nobody is going to ruin it. Especially not my family!" She turned into a hybrid ohms Lenopan and a human. She stood at the same height as her human guise, but she was made out to the same material as the others of her kind, and much like female lenopans, she had four catfish like 'whiskers' on her face.

"She is going to be my wife." Joel said proudly. I have this to say to you Joel. You are going to be hospitalized for close to a year eventually.

The bodyguard tried stabbing them with three pointed tendrils, but that didn't works, seeing as the Tennysons were on the run from him. He followed after them.

Camille jumped up and formed her hand into a hammer. She extended her arm and used it to whack the bodyguard upside the head, he was sent to the ground.

With the attacker downed, Gordon and Betty walked up to Camille. "We're sorry that we've been so tough on you Camille."

"Can you ever forgive us?" Asked Betty Jean.

"Of course. That's what family is for." Camille saw that the bodyguard was about to strike them. "Look out!" She pushed her soon-to-be in laws out of the way before she ducked. She and the bodyguard got into a tussle.

Max twisted the back part of his blaster, exposing the fuel cell. He set the gun to its self destruct mode. He ran up to the two lenopans. The bodyguard assumed a humanoid Lenopan form and punched Max away. June ran up to him.

"Dad!" June helped her father up. The looked at the Lenopan that was roaring at them. It stopped when it heard a beeping. It looked down to see Max's blaster imbedded in his chest. Max and June ran before the blaster went off, defeating the lenopanmbyntossingmthe majority of his body into the air, where when it fell to the ground, he was knocked unconscious.

June, Camille, and Max stood over the passed out lenopan. "Where's Jack?" June asked.

"And my parents."

Back with Heatblast…

Camille's mother was about to bring her mace arm to strike Heatblast, but the pyro more had other ideas. He concentrated really hard, which caused him to heat up. The light from this tactic caused Mrs Mann to look away.

"What's the matter? Can't take the heat?" Heatblast solidified her arm and broke it, freeing himself.

"Irritating pest!" Mrs Mann broke off the part of her arm that had hardened. "You just be from the groom's side of the family."

Before Heatblast could respond, the ground that he stood on began to rise up. He jumped off it, shooting a jet of flame to allow him to get more distance between himself and the attacker.

The attacker was Mr Mann. "We'll teach you to muck up our family business. Mr and Mrs Mann merged into one huge being that towered above even Optimus Prime. The mammoth sized creature was a mass of purple mud with the faces of the two lenopans atop it.

"You've been a bad little alien." Mrs Mann said. An arm came out of their body, which grabbed Heatblast and dragged him towards their body. "We're putting you down for a dirt nap!" Heatblast was brought inside their body.

They laughed triumphantly, but much like how Cannonbolt experienced premature jubilation when he thought he won against Camille's ex boyfriend two night ago, the Manns were experiencing the same thing. They heard bubbling. They looked down to see that Heatblast was not as dead as they thought he was. They Pyronite was firing them from the inside out. He hardened into a sculpture that seconds later. Heatblast broke out of.

Second later, Heatblast was joined by his great aunt and uncle, his grandfather, his mother, Camille, Joel, and Gwen."

"A little big for the wedding cake. But it's the thought that counts."

Later…

In the wreckage of the ceremony, most of the guest weren't there, but Max, June, Miko, and Gwen were there. They were going to try to do this again.

"I now pronounce you man and wife."

"Yep. Best wedding ever. Of all time."

At the reception, people had a good time. Joel(for some reason) slammed a piece of cake into camille's face, which, in response, Camille did the same to Joel, only she used the entire cake. The photographer, who was revealed to be Miko, took a picture of the aftermath.

When it came time to dance, Raf danced with Lucy(the young blond girl), while Jack was with Kiriko. Both of their attempts at ballroom dancing ended badly. Raf saw that Lucy must've been messing with him. Lucy's legs turned into same mud that the other lenopans were made out of. Raf slipped in it and fell over. Miko got a picture of it while Lucy was laughing.

Jack however had a different problem. While he was dancing with Kiriko, Jack stepped,on her dress, tearing it. Kiriko stopped dancing. She grabbed his nose and flipped him onto a table, cracking it, which Miko got a picture of.

Being slammed into the table was enough to tear the suit. Max saw the tear and was shocked. Miko, being the little sadist, got a picture of Max's reaction.

Another picture was of Jack angrily storming off.

One of the last pictures was of the bride and groom getting their picture taken as a couple. Miko tried to photobomb it, but she was being pulled out of it by Jack and June, however, Miko was in frame when the picture was taking it, making this endeavor of hers a success.

A black armored hand closed the wedding album.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: The Shinnosuke I mentioned is gonna have a big role to play way, way down the line, but Kiriko won't be seen or mentioned ever again.


	36. Legacy

Outside Alamo Nevada…

A white race car with blue trim and red 38s on the side sped down the highway. It was Smokescreen. Really, who else? Could it be?

"Energon signal's gettin' stronger." Smokescreen said over his communicator. "About five clicks due north."

"Smokescreen, you're going too fast. If you get pulled over for going over the speed limit, who knows what'll happen?" Bumblebee buzzed.

Smokescreen, full of himself, had this to say to 'Bee: "What do you mean, speed limit?" He asked. "I have a gauge in here that goes to 150. If the humans who designed my vehicle form didn't want it to go that fast they shouldn't have given me the option." Smokescreen sped up. Ignoring the fact that he was heading right for an RV. And not just any RV. The Rust Bucket 2.

Max saw the race car heading for him. He honked the horn. When the race car saw the Rust Bucket, it was too late to turn. Both Max, and the car's driver slammed on the breaks at the same time. The race car skidded in circles, while the Rust Bucket rolled off the side and of the road. Max was okay, as was the interior, but the body work on his mobile home would have to be redone.

Max unbuckled and grabbed a blaster from the glove compartment. He got out using one of the emergency exits. That was in the roof. He walked over to the car that had caused him to flip over.

"Hey, Indy 500!" Max yelled. He was uncharacteristically mad. "When I'm through with you, you're gonna need more than a pit crew to put you back together!" Max aimed the blaster at the race car and prepared to fire.

The car transformed into the Autobot Smooksecreen. Smokescreen bent down to Max's eye level. "Bring it!"

Max was unable to comprehend how one of Prime's men could be so reckless.

"Who's the tough guy now, huh?"

Max fired a bolt from his blaster above Smokescreen's head.

"Still me, punk." Max took aim at Smokescreen's head.

Bumblebee honked his horn as he drove to try to get Max to not kill smokescreen, or the other way around.

Bumblebee transformed into his robot mode. "Smokescreen, that's Max, Jack's grandfather." Bumblebee whired. "Sorry about him Max. I did try to warn him."

"Relax, Bumblebee." An overly relaxed Smokescreen said. "I'm just messin' around."

"Yeah, well, you're messing around could've gotten me killed!" Max shouted. "Smokescreen, stay here, if that's possible for you. Bumblebee, we're heading to the base. Prime's gonna want to know about this."

Later…

Jack was at the base when his grandfather arrived in Bumblebee's vehicle mode. The wrecked Rust Bucket 2 was brought there as well by a recently recovered Bulkhead. Smokescreen was getting his ass chewed out by several of the members of the team. Max had left earlier with June, who came to pick up her dad to take him to get some X-rays to see if anything was broken.

"Smokescreen, what the hell?!" Jack yelled after hearing what had happened. "My grandpa would have died and you say you were messing around?"

"In my defense, he didn't."

"Yeah, and in my defence, when I beat the crap out of you as Four Arms, I won't get in trouble when you bleed out, cursing your mother for the day of your birth, and when your final breaths leave your mouth, you will regret the day you crossed the wrong Jack."

"At least it was Max who saw him and not someone who we don't know." Bumblebee whirred.

Since Jack was done with his anger that he had directed toward Smokescreen, it was now Ratchet's turn. "Is this what you learned while serving Alpha Trion?!" Ratchet yelled. "I highly doubt that he would have condoned such irresponsible behavior."

"Remember day one, blowing your cover is not okay." Arcee berated. "And and if that's bad, then almost getting a human killed is worse."

"Sorry, guys." Smokescreen admitted. "I know I really messed up."

Jack turned into Heatblast. "Like hell you do!" He flung a fireball at Smokescreen's back. "You f-ed up."

"While Jack, Ratchet, and Arcee are correct," Optimus said. The stoic leader of the autobots got between Heatblast and Smokescreen. "I believe that we are all equally responsible for this incident, including you Jackson."

"Us?" Arcee was mad.

"How?" Asked Ratchet.

"Why lump me with the bane of my existence?" Heatblast asked.

"We weren't even there." Bulkhead buzzed. "Well, 'bee was."

"Oi!" Bumblebee elbowed the large green Autobot.

"Optimus, you have three seconds to explain yourself." Heatblast charge up a fireball and looked at Smokescreen.

"Seeing as our most recent efforts have been so intensely focused on averting crises that we have overlooked simple matters, such as teaching Smokescreen how to best function on this planet." Optimus explained. "It is an oversight that must be corrected."

Being a kiss ass, Smokescreen had this to say."Optimus, I'm honored to train under you and will do whatever it takes to make things right, to make you proud."

"Perhaps the best way for you to learn about the human world - is from a human." Optimus said.

Arcee didn't know what to think of what Optimus said. "Smokescreen gets his own partner?"

"Pah-lease!" Ratchet said. This next line lead to the greatest reaction shot I've ever seen. "Isn't having three humans here enough?" Everybody looked at Ratchet like he just said Hitler was alright. However, nobody mentioned the fact that Gwen, Kevin, and possibly Wash also know about the autobots.

"I was referring to one already among us." Optimus explained, motioning to Jack.

"Um sure, Optimus. Um, robots in disguise, traffic laws, don't beat down non super powered humans, I can bring Smokescreen up to speed. And if I can't, there's always plan B." Jack said, not wanting to disappoint Optimus.

"We've all put in curbside duty." Bulkhead explained. "It's part of the gig."

Jack climbed down a ladder. When he got to the ground, Smokescreen spoke to him. "Then let's go for a drive, teach."

Jack got in Smokescreen's vehicle mode before he drove out of the base.

"Optimus, with all due respect, Jack is the worst choice to partner with Smokescreen."

"How so Arcee?"

"They're polar opposites. Jack is mostly calm and collected, only charging in head first when he absolutely needs to." Arcee explained. "Whereas smokescreen always charges in head first."

"I do not see your point Arcee.",Optimus said.

"How many pictures of Jack has Raf had to scrub from the Internet? None. Meanwhile, Smokescreen, in all his wisdom, chooses a vehicle mode with screaming double "38s" on the doors, making him an easy target. He's gonna be the death of at least one of us. I just know it. Omnitrix or not, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more than concerned about Jack's safety."

"Nonetheless, the fact remains that our new recruit is in need of instruction. I believe that Smokescreen's spark is in the right place and that he now understands the necessity of protecting humanity."

Alamo, Nevada…

Smokescreen's vehicle mode came to a stop light. Jack to this time to quiz him. "Let's review." Jack began. "Light's green?"

"Green for go." Smokescreen responded.

"And yellow?"

"Go faster!" Smokescreen sped up.

"Whoa, whoa! Smokescreen!" Jack panicked. He wants to activate the Omnitrix, but he was holding on the the steering wheel.

When the next stoplight turned red, Smokescreen hit the brakes. "Ha ha ha! Just messin' around!" Laughed Smokescreen.

"Oh ha ha." Jack sarcastically chuckled. Jack heard the engine of a car whose driver he'd rather not anger. "Uh-oh." Jack tried to hide.

"What is it?" Smokescreen asked. "Cons? Alien?"

Jack rolled up the window. "Just someone from school I'd rather not talk to."

The car's driver saw the top of Jack's hair.

"Drive!" Jack ordered.

"Red light, teach. No can do." A hamburger was thrown at Smokescreen's window. "Seriously?"

"Just let it go." Jack said.

The light turned green. "Are you kiddin' me?" Smokescreen said after he started driving again. "Where's your self-respect? We gotta stand up for ourselves.

"We also have to follow Optimus' rule."

"It's not just about protecting humans you can't harm them, either, even though we make exceptions here and there." Jack explained.

Smokescreen just found a loophole. "Who said anything about harming?"

Back at the base…

Jack and Smokescreen were laughing as Smokescreen drove into the base. Jack got out Smokescreen before he transformed.

"I am so posting this tonight."

"Arcee! Arcee, check out Miles' car!" Jack wanted to show Arcee what he and Smokescreen did.

"The beta bully?" She saw the photograph, which was a black muscle car that had hot rod flame details, however, the car was covered in fast food items.

"Hey, Miles, did you want fries with that?" Jack and Smokescreen continued to laugh. "Or maybe an ice cream cone?"

"Let me get this straight." Arcee was disappointed with what Jack did. "So you taught Smokescreen everything he never needed to know about fast food?"

"He passed driver's ed." Jack said. "Work hard, play hard."

"Uh, yeah. No humans were harmed in the making of these photos. Honest." Smokescreen walked off.

The Nemesis…

Soundwave had just accomplished something important.

Megatron looked at the screen that was Soundwave's face. "You have decoded the next Iacon coordinates? Excellent, Soundwave!" Megatron held what resembled on of the relic containers. "Then it is time to beta test our decoy."

Back at Autobot outpost omega-1…

Optimus was hard at,work decoding the Iacon archives. "I am nearly finished decoding the next Iacon coordinates."

The autobots' scanners detected something. "You may not need to complete your task, Optimus..

Optimus looked at the screen. "An Iacon-locator beacon."

"It seems the Decepticons have already excavated the next relic."

"Ratchet, triangulate coordinates and activate the ground bridge." Optimus commanded.

Ratchet went over to the vp ground bridge control panel. He put the coordinates in and pulled a lever. The ground bridge vortex opened. Arcee, bulkhead, and Bumblebee joined him

"Bring on the Cons!" Bulkhead pound his fist together.

Optimus noticed that one of the autobots wasn't here. "Where is Smokescreen?"

"Out training again with Jack."

Optimus thought this over. "We cannot wait. Autobots, transform and roll out!" The autobots drove through the ground bridge.

At the location of the relic…

As the Decepticons searched for anything of value, they moved massive chucks of rock, which w

Is what the insecticons moved. After mining for quite some time, the deception miners had made s discovery.

One of the miners found something buried. "Lord Megatron!"

"I certainly hope that our new acquisition is of Decepticon origin." Megatron saw what his underling had found. It was a sword that was stuck in the rock. He was both horrified and surprised. "It cannot be. Power of this magnitude must never be allowed to fall into the hands of Optimus Prime, no matter what." Megatron approached the handle of the sword and tried to pull it out. "Come out!" Megatron grunted as he tried with all his might to removed the sword." Enraged, he plaster the rock with his fusion cannon, which threw up a lot of dust. When the dust cleared, Megatron found that them sword and the rock it was in was undamaged. "Huh? The rock is impermeable!" Eg strong came to a realization. "The relic is emanating a protective shield! It will only respond to the power of a Prime. We will remove it if we have to take the entire mountain!"

Back at Autobot outpost omega-1…

Ratchet picked up another signal. He tried to contact Optimus.

"Optimus, I just picked up a second Iacon-locator beacon." He didn't make contact. "Optimus, do you read?"

At the location of the 'relic'...

"No sign of Cons." Sighed a disappointed Bulkhead.

Arcee looked at a scanner that was supposed to help the, find the relic.

Above them flew Soundwave, who was projecting the Dummy Iacon locator beacon, as well as a jamming field that made contact to and from the autobots below impossible.

Back at Autobot outpost omega-1…

Smokescreen came soaring into the base. He came to a stop, opened up his cars and transformed. They were laughing.

Jack to a break from laughing to say something. "Oh, dude! My old boss is gonna freak!"

"That thing we stuffed in his tailpipe what's it called again?" Asked the juvenile delinquent Autobot.

Jack and Smokescreen,said,the same thing. "Pizza!" They continued to laugh.

Ratchet wasn't in the mood for humor. "Will you two keep it down?" He wanted silence. "Arcee? Bulkhead? Can anyone hear me?" He asked.

"Ratchet, what's going on?" Asked Jack.

Our sensors detected a second Iacon-locator beacon, but I can't reach Optimus." Explained ratchet.

"I'll go." Smokescreen volunteered.

"Alone?"

"You have a better option?"

Ratchet didn't have time to argue, so he just said: "Fine." He rushed over to the ground bridge controls and opened up the ground bridge.

"He says 'fine' but I don't think he really wants me to go alone." Smokescreen said.

At the location of the relic…

The ground bridge portal opened and out stepped Jack and Smokescreen.

"I just pulled a 'Miko'." Jack face palmed.

"Let's go grab a relic."

Jack and Smokescreen ran up to a collection of rocks that allowed them to see what the decepticons were digging up. "Whoa! It's a sword!

"Not just any sword. That looks like the Star Saber, a legendary weapon forged by Solus Prime, as lore would have it." Smokescreen said. "It's rumored to wield the power of the Matrix."

"I'm gonna make Optimus proud."

Jack saw the Decepticon Tyrant. "Not a good idea."

"And why's that?" Smokescreen asked.

"Because Megatron's here." Was Jack's reply.

"The Dark Lord himself." Smokescreen thought up a plan. "He won't know what hit him." Smokescreen was about to attack.

"I'd call him the less scary cybertronian Vilga- Smokescreen, wait. Something isn't right."

"And what's that?"

"It's kinda like how Vilgax tried to take the Omnitrix from me, basicly, why doesn't Megatron just take the Star Saber?"

"Germaphobe?"

"Be serious, it's more like he can't move it. We need to wait for backup." Jack said. He selected one of his aliens to use. He was going for Jackwolf, but got Grey Matter. "Aw man!"

"You heard Ratchet." Smokescreen picked up Grey Matter. "Backup's not available right now." Smokescreen jumped out from his cover with the Galvan in his hand.

"Enough!" Megatron shouted as miners and insecticons worked overtime to remove as much rock as they could. "Commence transport!" A single cable came down from the Nemesis and attached itself to the boulder. Energy bolts were being fired at the decepticon mining operation. Megatron was unaware of who Smokescreen was. He was avoiding the blaster fire from the decepticons, and taking a few more of them out with his own blaster. "Who in the pits of Kaon is that?" Megatron demanded to know after seeing this new Autobots.

Smokescreen got up to the Star Saber and grabbed it. He tried to pull it out. "Scrap! It's really in there tight." Unknown to him, Grey Matter crawled out of his hand and onto the rock. Smokescreen was shot in the back.

"Scrap! What do I do? What do I do?" Grey Matter panicked. "I got it! Since I wield the Omnimatrix, I should be able to do this." He touched the Star Saber, causing it to glow very faintly green. The sword shrunk to a size of about ten inches, which allowed Grey Matter to easily pick it up. Grey Matter saw the decepticons surrounding Smokescreen. "No! No, this can't be happening!" He got his cellphone out of his pocket, since strangely, it shrunk with him. He dialed the base. "Ratchet, you gotta get Optimus here now." Grey Matter panicked. "Smokescreen went for the relic he took me with him and I'm Grey Matter right now and I have the relic in my hands. I-it's called the "Star Saber."

"Where in the name of Cybertron are you? And did you say "Star Sab-? Oh, my." Ratchet realized what Jack and Smokescreen had found.

"Jack!" Ratchet hung up. The Omnitrix dial on Grey Matter's back blinked red. "Oh no! Not now!" Grey Matter was turned back into Jack. The Star Saber went from being a ten inches to about eight feet, which Jack could hold like it was foam and plastic.

Back at the base…

Ratchet had to get the autobots to Jack's location. "Optimus, please respond!" Again, he got no reply. "I can see that you're alive, Optimus. Why won't you answer me?"

At the location of the 'relic'...

Arcee was beginning to lose her patience with the scanner. "Every time we get close to the beacon, the signal moves."

Bulkhead was hoping for a fight. "All this legwork is giving me itchy fists!"

Optimus was humble enough to admit defeat. "It seems we have been led astray by a Decepticon trick."

A ground bridge opened Ratchet ran out of it.

"We have a situation." The medic said.

Back at the site of the Star Saber…

Megatron looked over at the Star Saber to see if it was still there, only to find that it was missing. "Where did it go?!" Megatron demanded to know. "Bring him to me." He ordered. The Vehicons brought over the half conscious Smokescreen. "What is your name, Autobot?" Megatron asked.

"Why? Who wants to know?"

"Smokescreen!" Jack shouted. "I got it!"

"What?! Impossible!" Megatron turned his attention to Jack, who held the Star Saber. "Only a Prime could wield its power. No matter, when I'm finished with you, the Decepticons will have both the Star Saber and the Omnitrix."

"Good luck buckethead." A bolt of green energy went from the Star Saber to the Omnitrix, instantly recharging it. Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Heatblast. He transformed and got what he wanted. And keeping up with the theme of the Star Saber changing to match Jack's form, the blade turned into flaming metal. Heatblast saw the change to the Star Saber and smiled. "Ah yeah. I'm all fired up!" He charged at the decepticons, slicing them apart with his flaming blade. He then twirled around and unleashed a massive slash which just a apart and melted the vehicons that tried to get him.

Several insecticons surrounded Heatblast. He jumped and projected himself onto one of them. Jack stabbed the insecticon's jugular, causing it to die of of both Energon loss and third degree burns. As another insecticon approached the dying bug beetle, Heatblast took the star saber and threw it into its face, piecing its processor, killing it instantly. He the. Jumped over to that insecticon and grabbed the star saber. He then jumped to another one.

While Heatblast was preoccupied with fighting the decepticons. Megatron fired at him and tried to get him off of his soldiers, but that wasn't going to happen. Heatblast used his small stature to his advantage. Megatron had a hard time hitting him, meaning that most of his shots either missed, or hit the insecticon.

Megatron gave up trying to shoot they Pyronite.

"Lord Megatron, shall we stop moving the rock that the Star Saber was stuck in?" Asked a vehicons miner.

"No. We might have a use for it."

The Omnitrix timed out, reverting Heatblast back into Jack. Seeing the being that had killed three of their brethren reverted into a human. The insecticons attacked Jack. Jack ran, the adrenaline in his system allowing him to run faster than normal. Jack saw that the Omnitrix had recharged. He placed the star saber on his back before activating the Omnitrix and turning into XLR8. The star saber once again changed as well, going from a broadsword to a slightly oversized dagger. XLR8 dashed ahead of the Insecticons, then came zooming back. He held the Star Dagger to his left as he ran around one of the insecticons. When he stopped on his shoulder. The insecticon seemed alright, but when it tried to move, it fell apart into a pile of Energon and bits of metal. While XLR8 admired his handiwork, one of the insecticons that was still alive slapped him and sent him flying against a rock wall. XLR8 was knocked unconscious. He was reverted back to being Jack. Jack regained consciousness and managed to drag himself to a small cave, where he collapsed.

"Now, where were we?" Asked Megatron. He pointed his fusion cannon at Smokescreen.

Megatron heard blasters firing. He looked to see Bumblebee and Bulkhead charging at him

"Where's Optimus?!" Megatron panicked. Megatron then looked to see Optimus running in the direction that Heatblast had gone.

Optimus ran through ranks of Decepticons, ranking, blasting, or cutting through any and all Decepticons that got in his way.

"Keep Prime from the relic!" Megatron ordered as he and several jet vehicons took flight and pursued Optimus.

Smokescreen deployed his plaster and got ready to shoot down a few of the vehicons, but he didn't when he neared a plaster charge up that sound like it was very close. He turned to see a vehicons with a boater pointed to his head.

Before the vehicons could pull the metaphorical trigger, it was shot and killed by Bulkhead.

"I got your back." Bulkhead said, repaying him for the backup the rookie gave him back when Cylas showed up.

Arcee looked to see Optimus fighting off a couple insecticons that had been trying to tear open a rock.

They were trying to get to Jack. The thing is, Jack was in the middle of something right about now.

He was seeing only a blinding white light all around him. When it faded, he saw a Cybertronian that looked very ancient. "Jackson Tennyson, bearer of the Omnitrix."

"That's me, I think." Jack was unsure of what to make of this guy. He tried to activate the Omnitrix, only to find that something very wrong was happening to it. It was shifting its appearance. It randomly changed from looking like the Ultimatrix that his fire self wore, its current appearance, its original appearance from when he first found, and then finally to a white watch with a square shaped black faceplate with a green X. "Okay. This is pretty weird. Where am I? And who are you?"

"I am Alpha Trion, and as to where you are, that is not a question I can answer Jackson, for this is not a place, merely a plane of existence."

"Okay Alpha Trion, why am I here?"

"To receive a warning. The road ahead will be a turbulent one. It will be either you or Optimus that will decide the fate of the not only the earth, but that of Cybertron in the near future. But before that, you will have to advert a greater crisis. The destruction of the universe itself."

"What?!" Jack panicked.

"Do not worry young hero, the crisis may not be looming upon you for many years. And before I send your spirit back to the physical universe, give the Star Saber to Optimus. In his hands, he will use it to defeat the Decepticons."

Jack awoke. He found that all his wounds had healed. He looked up to see Arcee stabbing her blade into the visor of one of the Insecticons.

"Arcee!"

"What could you possible have been thinking?!" She furiously asked.

Jack guiltily sighed. "I wasn't. Where's Optimus?" Jack asked.

"Jackson, you need something?" Optimus asked as he fired at Megatron's vehicle mode.

"Catch!" Jack threw Optimus the Star Saber.

When the last of the Primes caught the weapon, it emitted a blue glow. It grew to its original size.

Megatron saw this from the air and flew back to the nemesis.

"Drop the mountain on them!" Megaton ordered. When he got to the command bridge. The trapping hook that had the were, very large boulder up detached, causing the rock to fall. It landed about nineteen hundred feet ahead the autobots, and was rolling towards them. Optimus for some reason had his back turned to the boulder.

"Optimus, retreat!" Arcee screamed as she grabbed Jack and ran for the massive rock.

"Now!" Bulkhead shouted as he and the others did the same.

Optimus turned right before the Boulder got to him. He swung the sword up, cutting the mountain sized rock in half. Both halves stopped rolling, which prevented the Autobots from getting crushed.

"Did he just?" Asked a dumbfounded Bulkhead.

"He did." Whirred Bumblebee.

"No way." Jack said. In his mind, he saw Optimus as the only one who couldn't be beaten. Even Vilgax would have a hard time pulling that off.

In the nemesis, Megatron had the greatest solo reaction face ever.

Optimus ran up. He spun around, building up energy. The Star Saber unleashed a massive wave of energy that hit the retreating Nemesis.

"It can do that?" Asked smokescreen.

"You're still asking questions?" Jack said.

The nemesis almost crashed, but pulled up just in time.

"We Decepticons now face our darkest hour." Megatron said.

Back at Autobot outpost omega-1…

"How epic was that?!" Asked an excited smokescreen as he and the others entered a ground bridge. "I-I saw it with my own optics." He imitated what Optimus did. "But I still don't believe it."

"You know what I don't believe?" Asked a furious Arcee. "That after everything you've been told, you still put a human at risk."

"A-Arcee, it wasn't his fault. It was kinda mine. I shouldn't have g-"

"Don't you even start with me! We'll talk tomorrow!" Arcee snapped. "Send Jack home."

Ratchet did as Arcee told him to do. A ground bridge opened.

"Green for go." Smokescreen said to Jack before he entered the ground bridge.

Jack then got a phone call. He answered was from his grandfather.

"Jack, it's Animo. He's escaped. I'll stop by your house to pick you up."

"Okay grandpa." Jack hung up. "Off to go fight Animo, again."

When Jack walked to the vortex, he vanished. The portal shut off after that.

"We've been in need of another Autobot in our ranks, not another child."

"Look, Arcee, I was wrong, and I'm sorry again. And if you need to kick me off team Prime

"Disregard for human safety" Optimus placed the blade of the star saber into the floor of the base. "or anyone's safety will not be tolerated. Do you understand?"

"Fully, sir."

"We must never lose sight of the fact that upon this Earth, we are titans," Yeah, prepare,to downgraded to slightly above average status Optimus. "and such power must be used wisely." The star saber started to flow blue. Optimus held up the star saber, his face level to the hilt.

"Whoa!" Bulkhead didn't know what was going on.

Neither did Ratchet. "Optimus, speak to me! Optimus!"

"I am receiving a message."

"From who?"

Optimus paused for a bit. "Alpha Trion."

Years later, again...

The Storyteller from an earlier chapter continued telling the group of children the stories he had found that were about Jack Tennyson.

"What people forget is that Jack was made an honorary prime by Optimus when he gave Jack the Key to Vector Sigma. But the ignorance of both the Autobots and Decepticons could be overlooked mainly due to that being a tiny detail that neither side thought would be important." The Storyteller explained.

One of the children, an alien known as a Revonnahgander spoke up. "Storyteller, did you ever meet Jack 10?" He asked.

"Well young one, as a matter of fact, I did. However, at the time I had no idea that I was in the presence of a legend."

"What did you and Jack do?" A cybertronian child asked. "Did you help him beat Vilgax?"

"Not exactly, he and I had a rather underwhelming encounter. You see, I was imprisoned in a place known as incarceron. Not because I committed a crime, but because I annoyed emperor Mileus. He and a few of his allies were traveling to find the creator of the Omnitrix and just happened to stop by where I was kept captive. And as to why he was looking for the Omnitrix's maker, well, that is a story for another day."

Chapter end.


	37. Secret of the Omnitrix

Nuclear power plant…

Miko, Raf, Gwen, and Max were tied up in a chain. Judging by how Gwen and Miko's hair seemed to float up, they were hanging upside down.

"I hear normal kids normally spend their normal summer vacations at the beach. Or the mall." Miko complained. "Oh, that's right. We we supposed to go to the mall today."

"Sorry kiddo. Animo got out and we got a little sidetracked is all." Max said

Animo turned two of the knobs on his latest mutation causing device. A countdown timer started. "This nuclear reactor is the perfect way to detonate my DNA bomb, into the atmosphere, and de-evolutionize, the world!"

A door to the reactor chamber was broken down. There was a cloud of smoke.

"Took him long enough." Gwen said.

When the smoke cleared, one could see Jack's pyronite form of Heatblast.

"Okay Animo, science class is canceled."

Animo truly believed that this time he'd be victorious. "Fool! In less than a minute, the world will get a lesson it will never forget. In the meantime, meet my latest creation."

A massive silver insect that had blue tinted wings and red eyes flew at Heatblast. It was a mutated wasp.

"Bring it on!" Heatblast formed two fireballs in his hands. "I'll barbecue that bug!" He fired twin streams of flames at bunch of barrels, causing the material inside them to combust, then explode. The explosion created a bunch of flames, which blocked the mutated wasp from being seen by Heatblast. "Oh yeah! Being a hero rocks!" His jovial attitude vanished when he saw the wasp rise out of the flames unharmed. It then flew at him. Heatblast got out of the way by creating a spout of flames at his feet to propel himself away.

While in the air, Heatblast flung a couple of flame disks at the serial killer bee. The mutated bug was unfazed by the attack. It turned and flew at Heatblast.

Heatblast landed on the ground. He ducked to avoid being hit by the mutated insect. He formed a massive fireball in his hands and shot it at the bug. However, the mutant swerved to avoid being hit. The fireball hit the ceiling of the reactor chamber.

"Hey! Hot head!" Shouted Miko. "Mutant bomb ticking down over here!"

When he had a minute to spare, Heatblast fired a stream of flames at a spool of chain. The chain melted and broke, untying the others. Max caught Miko as he pulled a grappling hook from his belt, while Gwen said the name of a spell to get her and Raf out of this pinch.

"Lapsus!" An incline made of magenta-pink mana energy was created, allowing the two of them to slide down away from the reactor.

Max's grappling hook wrapped around a girder. He and Miko swung to the ground. He set Miko down when they landed.

The mutated hornet flew at them. They rolled to get out of the way before it stuck its stinger into the floor, getting itself stuck.

Heatblast approached the reactor. Animo saw this and informed his adversary that he was doomed. "Even you can't generate enough heat to melt through that casing!"

Heatblast thought up a plan. "If I can't shut it down, then I'll just have to turn it up!" Heatblast began firing flames at the reactor.

Raf, Gwen, Max, and Miko ran over to Jack.

Raf knew this was a bad idea. "Jack! You don't know what that's going to do!"

"Can't be any worse than what's going to happen if I don't."

Steam started to leave the pipes. Animo's machine started to spark. "No! You're overloading the system!" Animo ran for it.

"Yeah, that's sorta the idea." Heatblast said confidently. "Guys, I'd take cover if I were you." He warned.

More steam came out of the reactor. The core was starting to overheat. The gauges were showing that there was a lot of stress being put on the mechanics. The timer on Animo's doomsday weapon went from three, then to two, but before it got to one, it read error.

"Oh yeah."Heatblast said triumphantly as the machine shut down. Just then, a red light started to flash. Seconds later, Animo's machine sent out a wave of energy that hit the Omnitrix, reverting Heatblast back to Jack.

"You may have ruined my plan today Darby, but there's always tomorrow!" Animo flew off on his mutated hornet.

Max and the others ran out from behind their cover to check on Jack.

"Jack, are you okay?" Asked Max.

"Good thing I was Heatblast, cause that DNA wave would've scrambled me."

The Omnitrix started to glow orange. "Um, what's up with the Omnitrix?" Asked Miko.

"I don't know." Jack said. It blinked Orange a few times before returning to its normal green. "Alright! I'm in the green early!" Jack then ran after Animo.

"Hold on now Jack, who knows what's going on with it?" Max cautioned.

Jack activated the Omnitrix as he ran. "But Animo's getting away. I can't catch him if I don't go hero!" Jack selected Stinkfly. "Stinkfly cleared for take off!" Jack slammed down onto the Omnitrix and found himself transformed into Stinkfly, then Wildmutt, than Diamondhead, until finally, Grey Matter.

"Sometimes I think this thing just plain hates me." Grey Matter groaned.

Gwen, Raf, Miko, and Max walked up to Grey Matter.

"How're you planning on catching up to Animo now, short stuff?"

Grey Matter rubbed his chin as he thought up an idea.

Later…

As Animo(still on the back of his mutated hornet) flew by a collection of reactors, the mad doctor monologues. "Someday my pet, that snot nosed will get his!"

He heard a tiny voice. "In the meantime, here's yours." Grey Matter flew in on the hover board he gave to Miko after tetras gave it to him. He rammed into Animo's mutant controlling helmet, breaking it. Grey Matter jumped off the hover board right as it hit Animo. The hover board landed in the nuclear reactor, where it melted.

Grey Matter meanwhile landed on Animo's neck. He crawled into the mad doctor's sleeveless shirt,,causing Animo,to flail around in an attempt to get the nuisance off of him. His mutated hornet meanwhile was confused and rammed itself into the sides of Carlie reactor. Animo grabbed the SIC(super imaginative chobokin) sized alien. "Time to cut this little pigmy punk, down to size. He tossed Grey Matter away.

"Woah!" Yelled Grey Matter as he fell. He grabbed onto a chain which kept him from falling into the reactor.

Animo wasn't looking where he was going. When he looked in front of him, he saw that he had flown right into the wall. His mutated hornet was knocked out when it hit the ceiling.

"Ooh, that's gonna leave a mark." Grey Matter said as the Omnitrix timed out. In a flash of red light, Jack was holding onto the hoop at the bottom of the chain that Grey Matter had grabbed. Jack lost his grip and fell towards the reactor. He didn't fall in however, seeing as Gwen projected a sphere of energy around him to, which prevented him from falling in.

Max and the younger kids ran up.

"Wow, you're getting pretty good at that." Raf said.

"Aw, thanks Raf. You know what they say, practice makes perfect."

Later…

The Rust Bucket(the original) drove out of a tunnel that led to the reactor. The sun had just started to rise.

"That was awesome!" Shouted a pumped up Jack. "What's next?"

"Now we get to do something I want to do for a change." Miko said.

"What?" Jack knew Miko, and what she wanted to do was either go to the mall or go to a screech metal concert. "Aw man."

At the nearby town's mall…

While Gwen was shopping for cloths, Max was keeping an eye on Raf and Miko. Jack however, was left to his own devices. He was walking through the cloths store and found a few things that interested him. He took them off the rack and went to one of the changing rooms to try them on.

Jack exited the booth wearing a black dress pants, a black jacket, and a dark pink polo shirt. He was dressed like Tsukasa Kadoya. "Just a passing through Kamen Rider. Remember that now."

He went back into the booth and came out a few minutes later wearing clothes like Shotaro Hidari. He wore a pair of black pants. A long sleeved white shirt with black stripes, a black waistcoat, a red tie, and a black fedora. "Now, count up your sins." He point at his reflection in a mirror.

Once again, Jack emerged, this time, and once again, he wore a different outfit. He had a pair of slightly baggy black pants, a red t-shirt, and a black vest. He was dressed like Gentaro Kisaragi. "Space…" Jack crouched down. "Is here!" He shouted with his arms splayed out. "Let's settle this man to man!"

Miko heard Jack shout 'Space is here!'. "Did you hear that?" She asked while Gwen looked through the store's election of pants.

"How do you think these will make me look?" Gwen asked.

"Like a total-" Before Miko could finish that sentence, Max put his hand over her mouth.

"You'd look lovely in all of them."

"But I don't know which one to pick?"

"So, get them all."

"Thanks, grandpa." Gwen said with a smile on her face. On her way to the changing room, she saw Jack walk by her with a few things.

Jack tapped Max's shoulder. "Hey grandpa, is okay if I get these?" Max turned to see Jack holding the clothes that made him look like Shotaro.

"Sure thing Jack, seeing as you've been good, unlike someone here." He motioned to Miko. "One question, why do you want those?"

"They make me look like Shotaro, from Kamen Rider W."

"Well, I don't see why you can't have them. Why don't you try them on?"

"I already did."

"Quick question, why isn't Arcee here?" Raf asked.

"She and I aren't exactly on good terms right now." Jack said.

Gwen exited the booth with cloths on that didn't make any sense. She wore a light blue long sleeve shirt, a blue sweater vest, a pair of black pants, and a pair of yellow sunglasses with a white rim. "This is so fun!" Gwen was having a blast. , can we go shoe shopping after this."

Jack snickered. "Sure. Let's go, Phillip." He said under his breath. Jack notice that the Omnitrix was buzzing. The Omnitrix glowed orange as a wave of energy was emitted from it. It tossed Jack backwards, into Gwen, and then sent both of the, flying into one of the clothing store's employees.

"Jack!" Yelled a furious Gwen.

"It wasn't t my fault, I swear! The watch just wigged out!"

The employee burst out from a pile of cloths. She looked angry.

Very soon...

Jack, Miko, Raf, Gwen, and Max were kicked out. They were standing across from the doors.

"Banned from an entire mall?!" Gwen couldn't believe what had happened. "I have never been more humiliated in my life."

"Gwen. I don't know what happened!" Explained Jack. "I'm sorry."

Later…

In the woods, the Rust Bucket was parked at a campsite. In the sky above, there was shooting star.

There was a flash of nearly blinding light that woke everyone up.

"Morning already?" Asked Jack as he pulled the covers over his eyes. "Somebody turn off the sun."

"It's 3:30, the sun doesn't come up for another two hours." Raf said as he got out of bed.

Miko looked through the window to see a picnic table break as a space ship descended.

It was huge, dwarfing the Rust Bucket. It was mostly grey with bits,of it bald. It landed on two leg like landing gear.

A boarding ramp lowered and somebody exited the ship. The steam from the landing prevented the humans from seeing who was approaching them.

"I don't know who that is, but he's going to think twice before before he changes my wake up call. It's hero to-" A shard of crystal landed in front of Jack.

"Woah, a Diamondhead crystal." Miko knew,that it could only be one person that they knew. It was Tetrax.

Tetrax approached the humans. He opened up his mask to show this Petrosapien face.

"Tetrax." Jack recognized this guy.

"Good to see you again Jack."

"We haven't seen you since we took down Sixsix and that crab guy." Raf said. "Hoya been?"

"Busy, as always, but I came as soon as I heard."

"Yeah, about breaking that hover board you gave me, then let Miko have-"

"Jack, I'm not here about the board."

"Really? Then why'd you come all this way?" Jack asked.

"I picked up the SDM signal of the Omnitrix." Tetrax pointed to the Omnitrix.

"This, it's nothing. It's just the watch acting up again. It happens a lot ever since I accidentally broke it. It's not a problem."

Max knew what SDM meant. "SDM, as in self destruct mode?"

When the kids heard this, Raf and Miko ran away from Jack. Gwen just panicked.

Tetrax explained how he detected,it. "The Omnitrix broadcasts a signal when it begins its countdown."

Jack didn't like how that sounded. "The watch is going to destroy itself?"

"Along with whoever is wearing it at the time."

"Oh man." Jack began to panic.

"The question is, what triggered the countdown?"

Jack thought back to his fight with Animo. He had been warned that something bad might happen.

"When I fought Animo yesterday, I used Heatblast to melt his DNA bomb. It think that's what triggered it."

"We warned you!" Raf shouted.

"Well it,doesn't matter what happened cause Tetrax is here to take care of it." Jack held up his right arm.

"I don't have a clue how to deactivate the Omnitrix. Only Azmuth would know how to do that."

"Who's Azmuth?" Gwen asked.

"The rumored creator of the Omnitrix. Tales on him are sketchy at best. Nobody's even quite sure which planet he lives on."

"So how're you going to find him?"

"On my ship I have the equipment to examine the Omnitrix for Azmuth's DNA signature. It's an autograph on his work." Tetrax explained how they would solve this problem. "Once we have that, we can scan the Galaxy until we find him."

"Okay, so how long until the watch self destructs?" Asked a concerned Max.

Tetrax looked at the dial and saw that the hour glass symbol was slowly turning orange. The outer edge was blinking red. "Judging by the pattern's repetition, I'd say less than seven earth days."

"We'd better get going. There's no telling who else has picked up on this signal."

Jack was thrilled. "Road trip, space style!"

Later...

Jack was wearing his day clothes. He had his backpack on and stood next to Tetrax at the bottom of the boarding ramp. Across from them stood the others.

"Sorry Max. We can't run the risk of some alien somewhere recognizing you."

"I understand." Max said. "I guess you're gonna get that normal day that you wanted after all Miko."

"Translation, no Mikos allowed in space."

"Jack, I'm concerned you're not taking this seriously."

"I know, I know, it's always serious grandpa. And I always win in the end."

"With some help, thank you very much." Gwen said.

"Don't worry, I'll be okay." Jack said. "Okay? We'll find the creator, he'll fix the watch and I'll be back before you know it."

"Try not to mess thing up, okay?" Miko asked.

When Jack to the top of the boarding ramp, he turned and said to Miko: "Since when do I ever mess things up?" He asked,

"Do you want your list in chronological or alphabetical order?" Miko asked sarcastically.

Jack turned and entered the ship. He then got out his phone and called Arcee. As he waited for Tetrax, he might as well tell her where he's going.

After a while, Jack got an answer. "Jack, what is it?" Asked a mildly annoyed Arcee. "We're busy right now."

"I just wanted to say that I'm leaving." Before Arcee could respond, Jack added: "Not Team Prime. I'm leaving the planet. Tetrax is taking me to find the Omnitrix's maker so that he can disable the self destruct mode."

"What? How'd that happen?" She asked.

"It was my fault. Don't worry, Tetrax and I are about to head off." Jack hung up.

"Take good care of my grandson." Max said.

Tetrax nodded.

As the door to the ship closed, Jack had a smile on his face as he waved goodbye.

When the door closed, Jack saw that he and Tetrax were in the cargo hold. "Cool!" Jack was amazed as he looked around.

"Yes. It is cool, isn't it?"

Jack and Tetrax walked to a lift. It rose up. The came to an elevated platform. A door opened up. The platform that Jack and Tetrax stood on rose up. And went through the door and up a very steep incline. The two of them went by the various inner working of the ship.

"What's this?" Asked Jack as he and Tetrax passed through a room,with what looked like a high tech obstacle course.

"That's my training room. I have to stay in shape between missions." Tetrax explained.

They then came to a room that had a green glow and a projector in it.

"That's the hover simulator. It can create over one thousand different courses. You're welcome to use it any time."

"Thanks."

Jack and Tetrax walked into the bridge which had a massive holographic screen. Jack was amazed by it. "Awesome! It's like a big video game."

When Jack approached what looked like the pilot's seat, a creature made out of a pinkish orange slime popped up.

"Ah! Living mucus!"

"That's my pilot, Gluto."

"Hey." Jack uneasily said as the slime creature with three eyes go closer to him. "Nice to meet you too."

"I assume you're familiar with space travel protocol?" Tetrax asked.

"Oh sure." Jack said. He took a seat as the engines turned on.

Outside…

Max, Miko, and Raf saw the ship take off, however, Gwen was nowhere to be found.

In Tetrax's ship…

Jack and Tetrax were secure in their seats. Jack gave Gluto a thumbs up. Gluto pressed a button that made the ship speed out of the atmosphere and away from the planet.

As the ship accelerated, Jack tried to speak, but he found that all he could do was grumble due to the G-forces that were being exerted on him.

When the ship stopped accelerating, Jack saw that the loose bits of his cloths floated around. Jack got out of his seat and floated around in the zero G environment, having the time of his life.

Unintentionally being a kill joy, Tetrax spoke up. "Initiating artificial gravity."

Jack stopped floating around. Seconds later her fell down. "Space travel looks so much easier in the movies." Groaned Jack after he landed face first on the ship's floor.

"Get up Jack. You can take a nap after we examine the watch."

Meanwhile...

A ship that resembled the Malevolence was draining power from a smaller vessel.

"Your ship will be useful in my quest for the Omnitrix." Vilgax said to a trio of cowering aliens who were in an airlock. "And when I find it, I will exact my revenge on the Earth boy who thought he could imprison me in the Null Void." Vilgax, who seemed to have a few new scars and bruises, closed the airlock door and pressed the open button, causing the three alien crew members to be sucked out into the soul sucking void known as space.

A humanoid drone approached Vilgax. "Master, we have intercepted a signal. It appears to be from the Omnitrix." The drone projected a hologram of the omnitrix's beacon leaving the planet.

"The Omnitrix in space?!" Vilgax couldn't believe this. "What is Tennyson up to?"

Back on Tetrax's ship...

Jack was lying on a slightly reclined chair. The chair was sitting in the middle of what looked like Vader's meditation chamber but bigger. He was feeling rather scared right now.

"Ready?" Tetrax asked.

Jack nervously gulped as he looked around at the Petrosapien's medical devices. "Would no be an option?"

"Don't worry. I've had many of the tests performed on myself. Never felt a thing." Tetrax tried to assure to Jack that he was going to be okay.

"Well good for you. But don't you have diamond hard skin?"

As tetrax put on a pair of gloves that had a circuitry pattern on them, that idea ran through Tetrax's head. "Good point." He placed on a grey helmet that had a black visor. "Let's get started. A holographic display popped up. Tetrax pressed a button on the display that caused the chamber's top to descend. When it got to about Tetrax's height, it stopped. The chair that Jack sat in reclined.

The top then went down the rest of the way, encasing Jack in the pitch black darkness. A red light scanned over Jack. When it got to the Omnitrix, the whole chamber glew blue. Jack opened his eyes to see a green hologram of himself above him. The hologram's Omnitrix was separated, then split apart into its individual parts. Then the main core of the Omnitrix split apart even further. The parts of the holographic Omnitrix, which were too complex to describe, continued to be broken down into smaller and smaller components.

"Can't find Azmuth's DNA signature anywhere." Tetrax grumbled to himself. "Do you have any ideas where it could be?"

Jack had one idea, but he doubted that this 'Azmuth' would work like that. "Raf told me that when his dad got his mom a watch for their anniversary, he had them engrave something on the back of it."

"Of course." Tetrax reassembled the holographic Omnitrix. He then looked on the inside of the band and found a series of microscopic white dots. There were nine of them. Three of them were used to form an L block shape, while the other six formed what resembled a J.

"Found it."

Jack smile. Maybe he won't die after all.

Later...

Tetrax and Jack sat a computer console. "Now we can scan for the being with that DNA composition." Tetrax then typed the code in, seconds later, he found it. But it was coming from a rather odd place. "That can't be right. According to this, Azmuth is on incarcecon, the prison planet."

"Hold up, the creator of the Omnitrix is in some kinda space jail?" Jack was more than a bit confused. "Why?"

"Unknown." Tetrax turned to face Jack. "But it's home to the worst of the worst scum in the galaxy." He then turned his attention to Gluuto. "Lay a course for incarcecon." In response, Gluuto 'buzzed'. An alert message popped up.

"Security breach, lower level." Tetrax explained to Jack. "We have an intruder."

Soon...

Jack and Tetrax were on the moving platform and were heading to the the source of the disturbance. "We have to assume the worst." Tetrax pulled out a blaster. "If we split up, we can cover more ground." The moving platform descended.

"Especially XLR8." Jack activated the self destructing Omnitrix and selected XLR8. He slammed down on the dial, but instead of XLR8, he was transformed into Wildmutt.

Wildmutt growled in disapproval. "Good thinking. A Vulpimancer's keen senses should be able to sniff out the intruder." Tetrax said.

Wildmutt smiled and barked, as if to say he meant to do that.

Wildmutt and Tetrax split up and moved about the cargo hold.

As Tetrax moved about the hold, he held his blaster at the readied. He heard something stir. He pointed his blaster at the source of the disturbance. Seconds later, he saw Wildmutt walk out from between two large metal crates.

Wildmutt turned his head as if to say 'Really?' Tetrax didn't say anything. He just lowered his blaster and moved on.

Wildmutt's 'gills' detected something. He picked up the scent of the intruder. It was human sized and moving. 'If that's Miko I swear!' He growled to himself before going towards the source of the scent. He ran over there, going around several corners, before pouncing into the darkness that covered the intruder.

"Hey! Paws off fido!" The intruder, Gwen, groaned.

'Gwen, this is what Miko would do!' Wildmutt growled at Gwen.

"Save the mad dog routine will yah?" Asked Gwen as Wildmutt back off. She stood up. "It's not like I want to be here." She said as she dusted herself off. "But I figured you could use some backup." Wildmutt roared. He seemed like he was going to bite Gwen's head off. Gwen ran, but she was grabbed by the Vulpimancer by the back of her shirt. Wildmutt took Gwen and brought her to Tetrax.

When the Petrosapien saw Gwen he was disappointed to say the least. "Gwen, you're the intruder?"

"Sorry. I just figured since Jack needs help finding his toothbrush when it's in his mouth, I figured he'd need some help finding the creator."

Upon hearing that, Wildmutt growled. The Omnitrix timed out, causing Gwen to be dropped.

"Hey!" Jack complained.

"I'm just kidding, Jack never brushes his teeth in the summer."

"Tetrax, could we turn around and drop her back on Earth?" Jack asked.

"Sorry Jack, no time. We need every moment the Omnitrix-" Tetrax was stopped when he heard a beeping noise coming from the Omnitrix. "The countdown appears to have accelerated. I have to check something out."

Later...

Jack was in one of the holographic simulator courses. He was flying through a bunch of clouds on one of the hover boards.

"Aren't you a little bit worried that the self destruct countdown has sped up?" Asked Gwen, who seemed to be floating amongst the clouds.

"Nah, I work best under pressure." Jack said rather calmly.

"This doesn't just effect you, yah know." Gwen said angrily. "What about Grandpa? Or June? And what about Arcee? I'm sure they don't want you to get vaporized, or whatever's going to happen."

"Look Gwen, Tetrax and I have it covered." Jack explained. "We'll find Azmuth, he'll fix the watch, and I'll keep kicking alien butt."

"Tetrax said Azmuth would deactivate the Omnitrix, not fix it."

When Jack heard that, he came to a realization. He lost his balance on the hover board that he flew on. He fell to the floor as he flailed his arms around in an attempt to stay balanced. The simulator deactivated. "You're just trying to mess with me." Jack said defiantly.

"I'm afraid Gwen's right Jack." Tetrax said. "Truthfully, I thought you'd be relieved to have it off." Tetrax then approached Jack and Gwen. "You've done well with the Omnitrix, better than most other Earthlings could have. But now you can have a normal life again."

Jack didn't like the notion that Tetrax brought up. "Normal? Why would I ever want to go back to being normal after all I've done? And besides, I can't go back to being normal. I know the Autobots, the 'cons are after me, it wouldn't surprise me if right now they're planning on kidnaping me to use as a hostage against the 'bots." Jack explained. "Don't believe me? Well, back when we first met, Airachnid was trying to kill me not just because I had the Omnitrix, but because I'm Arcee's partner."

Tetrax let that sink in his head for a second before moving onto a more pressing matter. "Unfortunately, the computers confirmed my fears. Your transformations speed up the countdown. To be safe, you shouldn't use the Omnitrix again."

An orange sphere appeared around the Omnitrix. It then collapsed on itself, creating a small explosion which sent Jack fling into the wall. Gwen and Tetrax ran over to see if Jack was okay.

"Oh man." Jack groaned as he sat up.

Later...

Gwen was speaking with Gluuto. Gluuto used a few of the tentacles on his head to press a few buttons on the holographic display that was above him. He buzzed a few time, which Gwen replied to.

"I see. That's very cool." Gwen seemed to be able to understand the pilot.

"Great, Gwen made friends with what you'd find underneath a desk." Jack groaned.

"We're coming upon incarcecon." Tetrax said as his ship flew threw a purple portal.

The ship exited and flew towards Incarcecon, which was a massive space station that was oddly shaped. It looked like an umbrella.

A green grid with a yellow pulsating line popped up on the display. "You are approaching secure space of the Incarcecon intergalactic detention center." It said. "Identify yourself or be destroyed." It warned.

"What now?" Asked Jack.

Tetrax said nothing in response. Instead, he turned to a keyboard like panel and typed in a four character code. He pressed the enter button, but an access denied message popped up. He then tried another code. It too was denied.

The station deployed blasters that took aim at Tetrax's ship.

Gwen started to panic.

Tetrax tried another code, and once again, it was rejected.

As the blasters charged up, Jack crouched down and covered the back of his neck.

Tetrax didn't know how many more tries he had. He imputed code after code, each one getting rejected. He would be sweating if he had the capacity to do so. He then imputed a final code, which thankfully, worked.

Gwen, who was hugging Gluuto tightly, opened her eyes.

"Vendor security clearance accepted." The mechanized voice said. "Proceed to sanitation disposal bay number four."

Tetrax gave a thumbs up. Jack nervously laughed and held his thumb up as well.

As the ship flew to where it was supposed to go, Gwen just realized what the automatic voice said.

"Sanitation disposal bay number four? They think we're a garbage truck?"

As they flew through the scrap yard like trash pit, the ship passed by some wolf sized rabbit like creatures that had tentacles instead of legs.

The ship landed. Tetrax got ready to head out.

"I downloaded the DNA signature into my scanner. It should lead us directly to Azmuth." He then realized that Jack and Gwen couldn't get into the prison, not as they currently were. "But if these prisoners see a human, it'll be trouble."

"Wow. The rest of the universe hates us that much?"

"No. Most species love humans. They're considered quite the delicacy." Tetrax said.

Jack and Gwen turned to face each other with horrified looks on their faces.

"Let's hope that was a translation error." Jack whispered to Gwen. He ran up to Tetrax. "I could go alien just this once."

"And risk speeding up the self destruct mode even more? No. Every second's too critical until we find Azmuth." Tetrax turned to Gluuto, who had slithered up besides Tetrax. "You thinking what I'm thinking?" Gluuto clapped his hands and 'whirred' in response. "Exactly." Tetrax then turned back to Jack and Gwen. "From time to time my missions require a disguise." I think I might have two for you."

Later, in Incarcecon...

Various prisoners, who were of various species, did whatever they felt like. The prison itself was darkly lit. It had a blue tint due to the light.

Tetrax walked through a cloud of smoke, wearing his mask as well as a wide cloak. Following him were two aliens. One, a Necrofriggian with light blue eyes, the other was what looked like a hideously mutated grasshopper humanoid.

"I'm a monster." The humanoid grasshopper(which looked like Kamen Rider Shin) said with Gwen's voice. "It's official, worst summer of my life."

"Hey, rock paper scissors, two out of three. I won fair and square." The Necrofriggian said with Jack's voice. Jack looked around. He saw prisoners, but no one to keep an eye on them. "Where're all the guards?" Jack asked.

"No guards, no rules, no parole." Tetrax answered. "On incracecon, it's survival of the meaninst." Tetrax held out his arm to stop two of the prisoners, who were fighting, from drawing Jack or Gwen into it. When the fight moved, the three of them continued. "These aren't friendly types. They're all here for a reason, some of them, lots of reasons, and a few are here for all the reasons."

An alien wearing a trenchcoat and hood heard a familiar voice. He followed Tetrax and the two disguised humans.

A floating robot flew by Jack. It turned to face him before using an infrared scanner to see who he was. The robot then flew off.

As the prisoners moved about, a small four legged creature moved about the floor. It was stepped on my a massive alien. "MIne." One of the prisoners said as it grabbed the creature and brought it to it's mouth.

Jack almost barfed when he saw that.

The massive prisoner, which towered over Jack and Gwen, turned to face them. Tetrax intervened.

"Snack time's over. Now move along. Unless we have some other business." Tetrax moved his cloak, revealing his concealed blaster.

The alien made a raptor like clicking noise as it turned and ran away.

"Maybe you guys should wait over on the side until I can scope this place out." Tetrax suggested.

In response, Jack and Gwen nodded. Tetrax walked off. Jack was bumped into by one of the prisoners, as was Gwen, but she had bumped into the one that was trailing Tetrax.

Jack and Gwen walked over to the wall. Gwen sat on the ground while Jack leaned on it.

Absentmindedly, Jack looked to the left and saw a cloaked figure with a tentacle beard. "No! It can't be!" Jack thought it was Vilgax. "He must've picked up on the self destruct signal. But how'd he know the creator was here?"

"What're you babbling about?" Gwen asked.

"If I have to give up being a hero, I'm gonna at least take down Vilgax once and for all!" Jack said as he activated the Omnitrix. He selected an alien. He slammed down on the dial and became Upchuck.

Jack's ID mask shut off, as did Gwen's. "Vilgax? Jack! Wait!" Gwen saw that a bunch of the prisoners that were around her were looking at her. "Hi there." Gwen nervously said. "You guys have all had dinner, right?"

"I'm gonna chew you up and spit you out!" Upchuck shouted as he ran towards what he thought was Vilgax. He grabbed an alien's large, back mounted generators with his tongues. He then jumped up onto a power conduit and hacked up an explosive spit ball, which curved and almost hit 'Vilgax', but only hit right in front of 'him'.

Tetrax saw the explosion and was distracted, unable to see a punch that knocked him over.

The one who had punch Tetrax removed his hood, revealing himself to be Sixsix. He spoke something in his native tongue.

"It's not my fault you're here Sixsix." Tetrax grabbed his blaster and pointed it at the former bounty hunter. "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." He pulled the trigger and fired a blue beam at Sixsix.

Upchuck continued spewing explosive mucus at what he still thought was Vilgax. As 'he' continued to evade Upchuck's attacks 'his' cloak fell off, revealing him to be more streamline than Vilgax, and on top of that, 'his' armor was red.

'He' continued to dodge the blasts until 'he' saw Upchuck jump at 'him'. 'He' jumped at the Gourmand, catching him.

"What's your problem?" The alien asked Upchuck as he was held upside down. He wasn't a he, but a she.

"That voice." Upchuck then came to a realized something. He then looked at the alien woman that held him upside down. "Hey. You're not Vilgax. You're a girl!"

"Yeah I know." She dropped Upchuck and then kicked him. He went sailing to the other side of the station, yelling all the way.

"Oof!" The Omnitrix timed out a few seconds after he landed. Gwen ran up to him.

"He turned into a human." A Piscciss Volann said. "But how?!"

A Lepidopterran flew over. "The Omnitrix. He's wearing the Omnitrix."

"It does exist." A prisoner of an unknown species said.

"That's our ticket out of here."

"The Omnitrix. He's got it."

Jack stood up and looked around him. The odds were stacked against him. "I think we're in trouble."

"I really wish I was on Earth right now." Gwen whimpered as a bunch of the prisoners encroached upon her and her cousin.

Jack and Gwen were forced against wall. Gwen noticed the Jack was trying to activate the Omnitrix again. "Way to keep a low profile genius."

"Looks like we're on our own." Jack said, unable to do anything to get the Omnitrix to recharge faster.

"I was afraid you were going to say that." Gwen grabbed a pipe and twirled it around her head. She then held it in a combat stance. Jack then grabbed a metal rod and held it like Kamen Rider X's Ridol.

They were obviously in over their heads.

Tetrax ran out and punched Sixsix, knocking him off his feet. Tetrax then noticed that most of the prisoners were gone. He looked over his shoulder to see a bunch of them gathering around something. He then looked in front of him and saw that Sixsix was gone.

He opened up his hover board.

The alien prisoners were surrounding Jack and Gwen. They hadn't attacked or anything.

"Careful, with that thing on his wrist, he can become any one of us."

"Yeah, but if he knew how to control it, he would've used it again by now."

"Give me that thing!" The Lepidopteran shouted. It flew at Jack, but was struck out of the air by Gwen. Various other prisoners charged at Jack and Gwen, each one beaten by the two teens.

Despite beating a couple dozen of the prisoners, there were still more coming.

Tetrax flew through the group of prisoners, punching as many as of them as he could as he flew to Jack and Gwen. He jumped off his hoverboard, making it fly into a tetramand prisoner.

"You guys okay?" Tetrax asked.

Jack and Gwen nodded.

The Tetramand stood up. He grasped the hoverboard in two of his hands and effortlessly crushed it.

"Woah."

"That was my favorite board." As the Tetramand ran up to the trio, Tetrax stood in front of the teens. He held his arms out and fired crystals at the four armed prisoner, pinning it to the wall.

"Woah is right."

More and more prisoners started charging at Tetrax and the humans. Tetrax punched the lights out on every single one that tried to get to Jack and Gwen. "How did they... find out abou... the Omnitrix?" He asked as he threw punch after punch.

"Funny story, I'll tell you later." Jack said.

An alien that looked like a cartoonish bull was about to tackle Jack. Jack turned to face it with no time to dodge it. Then, out of nowhere, the alien was beaten down.

Jack looked to see the female of Vilgax's species that he had attacked. "Sorry about that whole chew you up thing. I thought you were somebody else."

The Chimera Suis Generis, who was much taller than Jack bent down. She had noticed the Omnitrix on Jack's wrist.

"What're you doing with the Omnitrix."

"Why do you care?" Asked Jack.

"Plenty after all the work I put into it, only to have it wind up on the wrist of some kid." She said semi rudely.

"You created the Omnitrix?" Jack asked. "You're Azmuth? Look, there's a major problem with the watch." Jack showed 'Azmuth' that the Omnitrix was in its self destruct mode.

"Yeah. I can see that." 'Azmuth' said.

Gwen continued to beat prisoner after prisoner. However, one of them got the drop on her, litterally. A spider like alien came down and was about to claw. Before Gwen could react, it disintegrated. What appeared to be a human with black armor approached.

"Seems like you kids could use a bit of help."

"Woah. Who are you?" Gwen asked.

"Most folks just call me the Storyteller, and this is EDNA." A sputnik like robot floated out from behind him.

"Okay. So why'd you save me?" She asked.

"Didn't want a fellow human to get killed by one of the degenerates here. Plus, word on the street says your brother here has the Omnitrix."

"He's not my brother, he's my cousin. And if you lay a single hand on him, I'll beat you!"

"Don't worry. I don't want to steal the Omnitrix. I just collect stories, not artifacts. It's in the name." The Storyteller punched a green alien with two green stalk eyes. He then used his blaster to fire at a pipe, making a red smoke descend on them. He grabbed Gwen and got her out of the cloud.

The cloud served as more than just cover. Any aliens that ran through it were knocked out.

"So can you fix it?" Jack asked the female chimera Sui Generis.

Tetrax flew by her and Jack. "First you have to get me out of this galactic sewer." She said.

"Hey!" Jack yelled as he was grabbed by short, four armed alien that tried to run off with him. Jack was tossed around by the prisoners, almost as if he were crowd surfing.

As Jack 'surfed' the wave of convicts, the Omnitrix decide to unleash a massive wave of energy. This one was bigger than the two that had come before. It sent all the prisoners that were near Jack flying. Gwen and the Storyteller were knocked over, as was Tetrax.

"Jack!" Gwen ran over to Jack, the Storyteller and Tetrax following her. "Jack. Are you okay?"

Jack grumbled a little. "What? Mom. No I don't wanna go to school."

"Yeah. He's okay."

The Storyteller bent down and grabbed Jack's left arm. "Incredible. The Omnitrix, and on a human nonetheless. What stories your mind holds. But they'll have to wait for another day. We need to go."

"He right. Jack won't be okay for long if we stay here."

Tetrax's ship rose up. It turned around and approached the platform that Jack and co stood on. It extended the boarding ramp.

"Gotta love that blob." Gwen saw Tetrax grab Jack. He ran to the ship. "Hey!" Gwen ran after him. The Storyteller and ENDA followed her.

"Tetrax wait! The creator!" Jack said after he woke up fully.

Tetrax and Gwen jumped the gap between the platform and the ship and landed in the cargo hold of the the ship.

The Storyteller also made the Jump, while EDNA flew over.

"You are not authorized to be in this maximum security area. Exit the ship or be destroyed." A mechanical voice spoke. Several dual barreled blasters that were on the central spire deployed and started firing on the ship.

"Those blasters are phase class. The don't do much to shields, but are like a hot knife through butter when it comes to metals."

Tetrax knew that this armored guy was right. "Gluuto, get us out of here!"

The ship took off, flying through the corridors of the station. As they flew, several drones were deployed and flew at the ship.

All the while, Tetrax and the Storyteller were fighting off as many of the prisoners as they could. EDNA was helping out by firing her blaster at the drones in an attempt to take them out.

One of the prisoners managed to get past EDNA's blaster fire. It was the Chimera sui Generis that Jack believed to be Azmuth. Tetrax was about to punch her.

"Tetrax, no! That's the creator."

Tetrax then realized that their mission here was a success, however, he threw his punch, but he didn't hit 'Azmuth', he hit one of the prisoners.

"Nice to meet yah." The Storyteller helped 'Azmuth' up.

The Lepidopterran could be seen flying at the group.

"You're not leaving without me!" He tried to get in the ship, however, Tetrax grabbed him by the throat. "Jack, that hatch."

A laser bolt bounced around the cargo hold.

"We're going to be blown to bits."

"Definitely not Vilgax." Jack said before he ducked to avoid being hit by a laser bolt.

The Storyteller attached a green plasma grenade to the Lepidopterran's back. A laser bolt that had bounced around the cargo hold hit him in the back, stunning it. Tetrax let go, causing the insect like alien to smack into one of the pursuing drones. The grenade went off, destroying three of the drones. Jack pressed the button that closed the hatch.

"Are you sure this is the way out?" Jack asked.

Tetrax threw off his cloak and retracted his mask. "Gluuto's on it."

Jack, 'Azmuth', The Storyteller, Tetrax, EDNA, and Gwen rushed to the bridge, where they found Gluuto working as hard as he could to get them out of there.

"Scrap. Dead end!" Jack shouted.

"We're not going to make it." 'Azmuth' shook her head.

"She may have a point." Gwen agreed with the Vilgax like alien.

Gluuto pulled up at the last second, causing two of the drones to crash into the wall, forming a hole that was as big as Tetrax's ship. Gluuto then flew back down and went through the hole, getting them out of the station, but they were still being shot at.

On the outside of the ship, two prisoners still held on. One was Sixsix, the other was of no concern. Sixsix shot the other one off. Second later, karma struck. Sixsix was hit by a laser bolt and knocked off.

Tetrax's ship flew through the warp gate and went away from Incarcecon.

In Tetrax's ship...

'Azmuth' used what resembled a microscope to examine the Omnitrix. "What've you been using this for? To open cans? Break rocks?" She asked.

"Close." Gwen said sarcastically.

"What about the self destruct?" Jack brought up the reason why they had almost died. "I'm sure the genius that created the Omnitrix can stop the countdown without turning it off? Right?"

"Maybe, but there is a problem." The Chimera sui Generis said. "I didn't officially create the Omnitrix."

"What?" Asked everybody else in the room.

"You're not the-" Jack was interrupted.

"Egocentric, selfish, self promoting 'Oh aren't I so brilliant' creator of the Omnitrix? No. I'm Myaxx, his assistant."

"But it has your DNA signature on it."

"I may have accidently erased Azmuth's DNA signature and put on my own, but that's only because he never gave me the credit I deserve."

"You might have mentioned this when we were risking our lives to bust you out of jail."

"I had, I'd still be stuck in that slime pit, wouldn't I?"

"You can't stop the self destruct countdown?"

"Azmuth never trusted me with the abort sequence." Myaxx replied to Jack's worry.

Tetrax approached Myaxx. He said to her: "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shove you in an energy tube and shoot you back to incarceron right now?"

"Because I know where Azmuth is."

"That's a pretty good reason." Jack said.

"Where?"

"Xenon." Myaxx said.

Tetrax's eyes widened. "Xenon?"

"It had to be Xenon." The Storyteller face palmed.

"Why do I get the feeling the Xenon isn't a vacation destination?"

Jack got ouf from the chair that he sat in.

"The random energy blasts like the one on incarcecon. They're growing larger and more intense, aren't they?"

"Yeah." Jack turned to face Myaxx.

"They indicate that the energy inside is building to critical levels. Eventually-"

"I know. Poof. I'm toast."

"Well... not just you of course."

"Come again?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow when he heard this. "What're you talking about?"

"Ask him, he knows." Myaxx gestured over to Tetrax. "Don't you?" When Tetrax didn't respond, Myaxx assumed the worst. "You didn't tell him?"

Somberly, Tetrax spoke up. "If the self destruct is allowed to detonate, it'll unleash an energy ripple that'll rip apart the universe, including the Earth."

Jack was speechless. His recklessness when fighting Animo was literally going to be the death of everyone he cared about. The 'bots, Miko, Raf, his mom, his family, everyone and everything he ever knew was going to be destroyed, and it was all going to be his fault.

"Azmuth is a hopeless paranoid. He built in the self destruct as a last resort to keep his most prized creation out of the wrong hands." Myaxx explained. "But he never thought anyone would be foolish to set it off."

"He never met Jack before."

Jack was mad at Tetrax. "I can't believe you knew about this the whole time and didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry Jack. I thought you'd be more concerned as to how this affected you, rather than others."

"What do you mean? I help people all the time with the Omnitrix."

"That's true, you do help a lot of people." Tetrax said with a smile on his face. Then he bent down and asked Jack: "But ask yourself this; Do you help because it's the right thing? Or is it because you enjoy the thrill of being a hero?"

Jack didn't want to respond.

"Jack, you need to cool off." The Storyteller said. "We all do."

"He's right, even at my ship's top speed, it'll be a long flight."

"How long?" Asked as sad Jack.

"A few hours."

Meanwhile, back on incarcecon...

Vilgax's ship flew by the intergalactic prison.

"Scan the area." Vilgax ordered. After a while, he found something. It was Sixsix. "There." He pointed to Sixsix on a holographic screen. "Retrieve that."

Soon...

Sixsix had been brought aboard Vilgax's ship. He was informing his employer of what happened. He and Vilgax were looking at a screen that showed the Omnitrix moving away from the station.

"But they must not have found what they were looking for on incarceron." Vilgax reasoned. "Their trajectory has them going into the yugopita quadrant." Vilgax squinted his eyes. "What does Tennyson know that I don't?" Sixsix said something. "Silence." Vilgax tossed Sixsix into a wall. Sixsix got up and deployed all the blasters that he had at had at his disposal. Vilgax looked behind him. "You had better be very sure." He said as he infused his muscles with the super steroids that his cybernetics. Sixsix wasn't suicidal, so he lowered his blasters.

Back on Tetrax's ship...

Gwen was the first to speak up. "So, any body know any stories?"

"I know a few tales that can keep us occupied." Said the Storyteller. He sat down in one of the seats. "How's about I tell you folks the story of my planet."

"Oh great. A history lesson." Myaxx sarcastically said as she worked on something for the Omnitrix.

"I think Jack and Gwen wanna hear it, what about you Tetrax?"

"Sure, why not?"

"Okay, here we go..."

[The following text is almost exactly identical to the video The Storyteller Fallout Prologue - Great War]

"After it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to father and said: 'Science has now known sin.' And do you know what father said? He said 'What is sin?'" A recording of a voice that EDNA played said.

Now the Storyteller spoke: "The discovery of the atomic bomb in the 1940s has given humanity a question that it seems my planet is an answer to. If ever there would come a day when mankind, or any sentient species possessed the capacity to destroy himself, what would come of us? Some predict that's where our story will end, but what if it was only another bloody chapter of that species' history? Many have experienced stories like this in one way or the other in their own ways, but sometimes you want to learn more about a specific story. Well- to get to the heart of the story- you have to go back to the beginning…

Change comes to all nations…

In the early twentieth century the great powers of the old world thought that their rule would never end. The Czars of Russia met their downfall at the hands of a bloody revolution. Western Europe fought a great war against fascists who sought to build a reich that would last a thousand years. It crumbled in less than a decade. The Japanese believed their Imperial rule was eternal, yet they were the first to have their pride seared away by atomic fire. The United States of America emerged as the world's great power by the nineteen fifties. Vast nuclear arsenals ensured that open warfare was a thing of the past, and soon after, America entered a cold war with their enemies. It was a long uneasy peace – a perpetual status quo as though the world were freeze dried and sealed in a vault for a century.

Those wandering the wasteland today might find it hard to believe that only two hundred years ago the richest nation in the world existed here. No deathclaws, no super mutants, no ghouls…

Most folk back then didn't have to fight for survival, or scavenge supplies. Factories produced everything a person could want – by the millions. Walking into a store with a stack of paper money, they could buy as much food, ammo, or clothing as they could carry. In fact the biggest "problem" people faced was finding a place to keep it all.

Highways stretched three thousand miles from coast to coast with roadside diners selling fresh burgers made from something the Old World called a "cow". Riding in gas-guzzling Chryslus cars, and drinking ice-cold soda pop, the Americans enjoyed their prosperity for generations. Secure in their belief that their way of life would never alter. That they would never be forced to evolve.

Change came slowly at first. And it was welcomed. People weren't satisfied just having a house where fresh water came right out of a pipe in the wall. No, they wanted more. Always more. They wanted robots to do their work for them, and they needed electronic computers to do their thinking for them.

Companies like RobCo filled the demand for domestic robots so that citizens didn't have to lift a finger. A robotic Mister Handy could walk the dog, do the laundry and watch over the kids too, leaving mom and dad free to spend an evening on the town, or to watch the latest show on the old Radiation King television set.

If they got lost on the road, an American consumer could use the new Personal Information Processors to see where they needed to go without ever needing to open a map. Of course all of these new-fangled technological wonders needed power to run. Gasoline had been plentiful for over a hundred years, but the Earth had started to run dry by the middle of the twenty-first century. More and more of the power came from atomic energy and, thanks to companies like General Atomics, there were atoms to spare for decades to come. Cities lit up, robots kept on humming and computer monitors kept glowing. Some factories even started turning out atomic-powered cars with fuel cells that still have some juice in them today – so don't go using those rusted old Corvegas for target practice.

Factories churned out toys for the kids, teddy bears, tricycles and comic books by the ton. Dad could mix his rum with a bottle of Nuka Cola, and mom had new spring fashions every year. Shelves were filled with snack cakes, canned meats and sugar-coated cereals – all of it pumped full of preservatives so that it would stay fresh forever and mom wouldn't have to take so many trips to the grocery store. You see, when it came to consumption- the Americans were the best.

Yet even with the increased use of atomics, there wasn't enough energy for the billions of people across the world. Oil was more precious than ever and the petroleum rich countries of the middle-east sold their dwindling supplies at ever-higher prices. Eventually the wells ran dry in most of the world. The uranium mines were scraped clean, but no one wanted to give up their shiny new technology.

Change had come and with it, war.

The Middle East could have used their limited uranium stock to power reactors for a few decades, but instead they squandered it on weapons to settle old scores. The European Commonwealth had been proud of how they had joined together in one glorious unified state, but it didn't take long before they turned on each other, scrambling for the last drops of oil within their borders.

Alaska, with its abundance of natural resources, remained the source of America's power, and the only place on Earth where oil still flowed. The far off territory was a tempting target for a desperate China. The Americans foresaw invasion and fortified Alaska, but nothing could deter China from capturing Anchorage.

With the two remaining superpowers at war, Canada was trapped in the middle and soon annexed by their neighbors to the south. Allegedly this was so that the entire continent could be one continuous nation allied against the Chinese invaders, but Canadians viewed it as a ruthless bid for America to retain control of the world's remaining oil supply.

The Resource Wars had come to American soil.

In a resource war, the winner will always be the side that fights most efficiently. China used the greatest minds of the East to create stealth technology that allowed their recon teams to infiltrate and assassinate while remaining completely undetected. Taking down high value targets with a single shot.

America had its own brand of eccentric genius. With the power of the atom at hand, unbridled American engineers created scientific marvels the rest of the world couldn't have imagined. The glut of consumer electronics that had flooded American stores were only the beginning of the wonders created by the likes of RobCo and Poseidon Energy whose true focus was the development of new weapons that could replace the inefficient tools of warfare used in past decades.

Combat robots, energy weapons and cybernetics entered the war as America sought to retake Anchorage. Battles were fought by daring men who fire nuclear warheads from shoulder-mounted crossbows. Cyberdogs with the brain of a loyal hound encased in an unyielding titanium body. Even robot butlers hovered across battlefields, armed with plasma guns and flamethrowers. There was even a plan to engineer a new breed of mutant super soldiers, but it was the creation of power armor that ensured American victory. Power armor combined the mobility of an infantry soldier, with the resilience of a tank, and the firepower of an entire squad. Fueled by microfusion cells, these elite troops could inflict crippling strikes on Chinese military assets using a fraction of the resources of conventional military units. Early models of power armor were devastating enough, but after a decade of refinement the T-51b power armor represented the height or pre-war combat technology. With the aid of these perfected armored suits, America quickly liberated their territory from the Chinese. In the modern day the T-51b has become a symbol of the Brotherhood of Steel, but centuries ago it was the final majestic icon of American Exceptionalism.

By autumn of 2077 the overt conflicts in the Pacific were finished, and most Americans were so tired after a decade of war that they genuinely believed peace had arrived. The paranoid, or perhaps just perceptive, began stocking their bomb shelters, knowing that China would not simply slink away across the ocean in defeat. A final confrontation was coming.

In an effort to preserve at least part of humanity from the inevitable end that approached, a secret enclave of America's elite set about ensuring survival at all costs. Victory? Rebuilding? No longer viable options. Their full intent is lost to history, but documented plans include taking refuge within a mountain, or an oil rig, and even launching a ship into space to find a new planet to colonize. The modern Enclave claim to be the descendants of that last group of America's elite. That might be true although many residents of the wasteland would argue that it takes more than a flag and a squadron of vertibirds to be a government of the people. Regardless of whether or not the Enclave's claims are true, the majority of America's population did not have access to off-shore bases, or secret mountaintop fortresses.

Fortunately for a hundred thousand of them, the Vault-Tec corporation provided access to radiation-proof shelters that could each keep about a thousand people safe while waiting for conditions on the surface to calm down. No where near enough to save everyone, but it offered hope and kept the public from panicking. Most of the Vaults were stocked with everything their inhabitants would need for years. Even some of RobCo's latest gadgets like the Pip Boy 3000 which hadn't hit the mass market yet. Some vaults even had enough supplies to keep their inhabitants and their descendents alive for generations to come. A few vaults had some "unexpected" conditions though. Maybe it was bad luck, maybe administrative troubles at Vault-Tec headquarters. Or it could have been something more sinister, but at least the people who made it to those vaults were still alive the day after.

On October 23rd 2077 alarms rang across the United States, signaling an attack. There had been plenty of false alarms and training drills over the years and it isn't hard to imagine war-weary citizens shrugging their shoulders and going on with their day, unaware that this was really the apocalypse they had feared.

Perhaps people laughed when they saw their neighbors racing to Vault-Tec facilities. The lucky and privileged few who had been assigned a place within one of the Vaults might have felt silly when the massive doors rolled shut, but they were among the tiny fraction of humanity that could still feel anything at all when the bombs landed.

Historians still don't know much about what happened outside the vaults that day. People weren't concerned with writing in their journals. Hard as it is to believe, there are still ways to hear first hand accounts of the pre-war times. The sources aren't exactly reliable, though.

A few rotten old ghouls claim to have been alive back then. Most of them are just telling tales, hoping to get someone to talk with them for a while. There were a few scientists who managed to preserve their brains in jars before the war, too. Some of those old brains are still alive today and might be able to discuss the old days, assuming that any of them are still sane after being a disembodied brain for two centuries. The right medical equipment has kept at least one person alive since before the war. Trouble is, a man with that kind of will to live isn't going to take chances by chatting with strangers.

Knowing how people lived before the war can help the wasteland tremendously. Scavengers and research teams dig up all sorts of things that can't be identified. Any rusty old box could hold an ancient secret to providing clean water or fresh food or limitless electricity to the wasteland. At the very least the modern world can learn from the mistakes of the past.

The Americans never truly believed that their way of life could come to such an abrupt end. But change comes to all nations, to all people, all ways of life. The only constant in not just man's struggle, but all intelligent life's struggle for survival is war, because war- war never changes."

The storyteller finished his tale. Gwen had more than a few questions.

"Storyteller, why did you refer to things from Earth like the United States and Europe?"

"My planet was a copy of the earth, made by a twisted group of Galvan."

"What do you mean by copy?"

"Back in the 1950s, the galvan made a copy of the earth and its solar system, and placed it in a different part of the galaxy. They killed certain people, and then sped up the process of time that copied sol system experienced. One year to the rest of the universe was about five for my homeworld. Eventually, the process of time was slowed, allowing my system to age at the same rate as the rest of the universe."

"And you know about this how?" Asked Jack.

"About a decade ago, Edna and I found a crashed spaceship at the bottom of an area known as lake Erie. We used it to leave our Earth and found that the planet that I was born on was created as part of some sick experiment." Explained the Storyteller. "I decided to travel the galaxy, hoping to hear any of the countless stories that are among the stars.'

Gwen felt really bad that the Storyteller learned that his existence was some kind of sick joke. "I'm sorry that you had to learn that."

"Thank you, but you don't have to be Gwen. Besides, we have more important matters at hand."

"He's right." Said Myaxx. "One more thing." She attached a metallic plate to the Omnitrix. "This device should reflect the energy fluctuations. While still allowing you full access to the control dials."

"Fat lot of good it does me if I can't go hero anyways."

Something hit the ship. The group made their way to the bridge, where Gluuto and EDNA were trying to steer the ship through an asteroid field. Now, normally, that wouldn't be a problem, seeing as asteroids in fields such as the one in the earth's solar system are really far apart. However, in this one, they were really close to each other.

"Gluuto, status."

"EDNA, what's the situation?"

The slime alien and floating robot both responded in their own ways.

The ship began to enter a dark area. As in it started to get dark out in space.

"Xenon."

"Where?" Jack asked.

"Rumor has it that Azmuth created a device which absorbs all the light of this quadrant." The Storyteller explained. "Is that correct Myaxx?"

"Half right. I was the one who calculated the entire particle absorption matrix. But will he admit that? No."

"Sorry I asked."

"Anyway, Xenon is surrounded by an asteroid belt."

"Which you can't see because Azmuth turned out all the lights." Gwen reasoned.

"Exactly." Myaxx pointed at some parts of the wreckage, which were metallic and didn't look like rocks. "Those are failed attempts."

The ship scraped up against one of the rocks.

Gluuto was visibly sweating.

"Even with help from the Storyteller's robot, Gluuto can't drive blind." Tetrax explained what Gluuto said.

Jack crossed his arms. "So, how're we supposed to get to Xenon if we can't see it?" Asked Jack.

Myaxx pointed to the Omnitrix. "The answer is on your wrist."

Soon...

Jack was in a space suit, standing on the outside of the ship.

"Please explain to me again what I'm doing out here?" Jack asked.

Over the space suit's communicator, Myaxx's voice was heard. "The Omnitrix has a built in homing device. We should be close enough for it to guide us through the asteroid field." She explained.

"Should be?" Tetrax was heard.

"This story might not end well." The Storyteller said.

Jack looked around. Sure, he'd had to wear a spacesuit before to go into a dark place, but on Cybertron, at least he was on a planet. Out here however, one wrong move and he, along with everyone else is dead. Jack gulped. "Okay, this is creepy."

A piece of debris hit the ship, shaping it. Jack became unsteady while in the ship, the others were tossed around.

"What're you doing? You have to direct us or the ship will be torn apart." Myaxx said.

"Oh great, no pressure."

The Omnitrix dial popped up. It unleashed a green signal that radiated out. The dial then rotated to the right.

"It's working!" Exclaimed Jack.

"I know. I know. I was going to." Tetrax could be heard saying. "Should we turn to starboard or to port?"

"What?" Jack asked.

Gwen gave Jack an explanation. "He means right or left."

"Got it." Jack said as the Omnitrix dial turned to the left. "Go to the right." As the ship turned, Jack saw two pieces of spaceship debris heading towards the ship. "I mean left, go left!"

Back in the ship...

The debris hit the ship, causing everyone to fall over.

"This is why Arcee never lets him navigate." Gwen said as Tetrax helped her up.

"Who's Arcee?" The Storyteller asked.

"We'll explain later."

Gluuto and EDNA continued to navigate through the asteroid field, dodging most of the debris, however, a few chunks managed to scrape against the sides. Luckily, nothing came near Jack.

Back with Jack...

The Omnitrix glowed green before unleashing a green beam of light that shot away from the ship and towards what seemed to be a planet. The area around them started to light up. He could see a planet that was very oddly shaped. It looked like a chunk of rock that was green, lime green, and had a black center. Orbiting around it were twin rings that went in an X pattern.

"Did it." Jack said to himself. "Yeah!"

"Well done Jack." Tetrax said. "Come on it."

Back inside...

EDNA had detected something on the ship's scanner. She informed Gluuto.

Outside...

Jack saw a huge rock heading right for him. He gasped in terror. Suddenly, the rock was destroyed.

Three drills attached to cables came down and attached themselves to the ship. They started drilling into the ship.

Something hit Jack, causing him to lose his grip on the hull. He floated off.

Back inside...

Tetrax saw whose ship had attacked. He somehow recognized it. "Vilgax."

Gluuto saw two robot start to try to cut holes in the hull of the ship.

The voice of death was heard. "Surrender the Omnitrix and your deaths will be swift. Except of course for the Tennyson boy."

"We're gonners now!" Myaxx gave up.

"Not while I'm in charge." Tetrax pressed a button on the ship's communicator. He spoke to Jack. "Jack, I'm sending a gyro pod."

"I'll just go BC and fly back." Jack said, about to activate the Omnitrix.

"No Jack. We can't afford to accelerate the countdown. I'm sending the pod."

"Gwen, I need you, the Storyteller, and Gluuto to keep him busy for a while."

Gwen nodded.

Tetrax pressed a button that launched a small ship that looked like a sphere that was balanced on a couple of large 4X4s. It flew towards Jack, who grabbed onto.

Back in the ship...

The drones had cut a hole in the hull. Depressurizing that section of the ship. Several humanoid drones wielding blasters came in. Two of them were much bulkier than the others.

After they moved on, Vilgax entered the ship. Following him was Sixsix. The hull sealed itself after the two aliens entered.

Back outside...

Jack entered to gyro pod and found that the controls were not designed for a human, as demonstrated by the fact that there were four pedals, and too many different levers and knobs for one person to use.

"What kind of alien is this built for?" Jack said to himself. "What am I even saying? Gluuto." Jack sat down. "Oh well. How hard can it be?"

Back in the ship...

The drones were searching everywhere for the beings that were aboard this ship. They came to a door. When it opened, they went through. As they walked through the hall, they failed to notice Tetrax in a compartment above them.

Tetrax pressed a button that made two of the walls come and crush the drones.

Back outside, Jack was having trouble getting the pod to maneuver.

He accidently pressed a button that made a mechanical arm fold down. A cup then fell into it. The cup was then filled with what Jack assumed was water as well as three fish like creatures. Jack suppressed his gag reflex when he saw this. Something then hit the pod, causing the cup to be knocked over.

Jack scrambled as he tried to find a way to steer the ship. When he ran out of idea, Jack raised his arms to brace himself for impact.

Suddenly, the ship turned. Jack then noticed that his arms had hit twin piston like structures that had a handle in each one.

"Alright." Jack said. "Now I got it." Jack grabbed the handles and used them to steer the ship.

As he flew up the edge of the chuck that he almost crashed into, three green dots appeared on the viewscreen. They were joined by a yellow ring, which connected them. Four blaster barrels popped up on the outside of the ship.

"This isn't so tough once you figure it out."

Jack then pulled up and started to make his way back to Tetrax's ship.

When he passed by Vilgax's ship, the larger vessel's blaster turrets began to fire at Jack's gyro pod. The ship deployed several star shaped drones that pursued Jack.

Jack saw the drones on the pod's scanner and looked for something that would help him fight back.

Back inside...

Gwen came across a trio of drones. She looked behind her and saw the hoverboard course simulator.

With Tetrax and Myaxx...

Tetrax was getting something out of a storage container.

"What are you doing?" Myaxx asked.

Tetrax tossed Myaxx a spacesuit. "We're going outside. We need to free the resolute from Vilgax's ship."

"Me, outside? In space?" Myaxx panicked. "Oh no. I'm more of a land based species."

Tetrax glared at Myaxx. "If we don't clear those tethers by the time we reach Xenon's gravitational pull, both ships will be destroyed in reentry." He explained.

"Well, when you put it that way."

In the bridge...

Vilgax and Sixsix entered. Vilgax had to bend down to get in. They approached where Gluuto normally was, only to find an empty suit.

"It appears we've scared the pilot right out of his skin." Vilgax was half right. Gluuto was oozing through the cracks in the floor that were out of sight of Vilgax and Sixsix. In a holographic screen, Vilgax saw Tetrax and Myaxx trying to cut through the cables. "Stop them!" He ordered.

Sixsix ran out of the bridge and was going to make his way towards the airlock.

"Vilgax, what smells like Brahmin shit around here?" Vilgax turned to see the Storyteller pointing his tri beam laser rifle at him. While Vilgax was distracted, Gluuto wrapped around Vilgax in an effort to restrain him. The alien warlord stumbled around. He bumped into the control console, falling over. When he stood up, Vilgax removed Gluuto from his head and threw him against the wall. (A.N. A brahmin is a type of two headed cow found in the Fallout series. It's also a caste in Hinduism, which specializes as priests, teachers, and protectors of sacred learning across generations. It's obvious that I meant the first definition of Brahin.)

As the Storyteller fired laser blasts at Vilgax, Gluuto got back up and jumped at the Chimera sui Generis.

Back outside...

Jack was desperately trying to avoid being shot at. He was trying to get at least a few of the drones to crash into the debris that he flew around. Jack flew by the ship, where Tetrax and Myaxx were cutting through the cables.

Tetrax saw that Jack wasn't aboard the ship. He sent Jack a message. "Jack, get back to the ship."

"I'm trying!" Jack pressed a button that made several pedals pop up. Jack was thrown back a bit. When his feet landed on two of the petals, he made two of the barrels fire green laser bolts at an asteroid. The space rock as destroyed, and a piece of the rock when by the pod and crashed into one of the drones.

Jack realized what he did. He smile deviously. He grabbed the handles that steered the ship and turned the ship around. As he flew at the drones, he rapidly stomped on the blaster firing petals, making the shoot the drones. He managed to destroy all of them after a few seconds of continuous fire.

The pod was hit. Jack looked to the left to see five more drones approaching him. He turned and flew at them.

Back inside...

The three humanoid drones had located Gwen and stood in front of her, firing squad style. Gwen raised up her hand and said: "Segma sofom!" Three of the hoverboards took off and flew at the drones, knocking them over. The flew up and then back down, ramming into them. "Yes!" Gwen cheered. She pressed the on button on the simulator. She ran out as it powered up.

She closed the door and ran back to the bridge, one of the drones following her.

Back in the bridge...

The Storyteller and Gluuto were still fighting Vilgax. The armored human was engaging him at a distance while the slime based alien was getting up close. Vilgax slammed Gluuto into the ground. He saw that Gluuto was beginning to reform himself. He grabbed a section of floor and slammed it down.

"How dare you touch me you slime." Vilgax hissed. The Storyteller shot him in the back.

"Don't be so rude. You and him are distantly related."

"You. You annoy me!" Vilgax grabbed the Storyteller and slammed him against the wall.

"I get that a lot." The Storyteller stuck a plasma grenade on Vilgax and used a power fist to get him to let go. The grenade went off after the Storyteller managed to get out of the blast radius.

Back in space...

Jack was still flying away from the drones. He narrowly avoided two rocks that were crashing into each other. The drones effortlessly avoided the resulting debris. Jack pulled down and flew into a hole that was in one of the larger chunks. The drones followed him. He saw that he was coming to a dead end. He rapidly stopped on two of the pedals to get them to fire their laser bolts as fast as they could. They were digging a tunnel that Jack flew though. He kept on stomping fast and faster until he had dug through the entire section of the piece of debris.

"Oh yeah! This is better than Kamen Rider any day!" Jack was having a blast.

He then flew back to the ship.

Tetrax saw him fly by and said to him. "Jack, I'm opening up the rear hatch, try to land in the cargo bay."

"Okay, I'll try." Jack said.

Back in the bridge, Vilgax, who had knocked out the Storyteller, saw the Gyro pod that had Jack in it fly by.

The two star drones that were pursuing Jack attached to the side of the pod right before he managed to land.

Jack saw Sixsix approach them from an open panel. "Look out!" The tried to warn them, but their reaction time was too slow. Sixsix shot Tetrax and Myaxx in the back.

Tetrax pulled his blaster and fired at Sixsix. The two bounty hunters got into a gun fight atop the spaceship.

As the two star shaped drones tried to break open the Gyro pod, Jack saw the fight going on below him and knew he had to help.

Tetrax tried to punch Sixsix, but the sotoraggian dodge the punch and hit Tetrax with a dark red energy mace, knocking the petrosapien off his feet. As Sixsix went to finish off Tetrax, he looked to the right to see the Gyro pod flying at him.

Jack fired at the bad guy that he had encountered twice before. A couple of the shots hit Sixsix's helmet, exposing his face, which was hideously mutated.

Before Jack could celebrate, one of the insect like legs of one of the drones that had latched onto the Gyro pod broke through. The drones were tearing off pieces of the pod.

Back in the bridge...

Gwen made her way back to the bridge. She was looking for Gluuto. She then tried calling his name. "Gluuto!'

She saw a pile of pink slime that had come from Gluuto as well as a KO'd Storyteller.

Gwen gasped when she heard a blaster charging up. She looked behind her to see one of the humanoid drones that she thought she left in the holo-course simulator.

Gluuto reformed himself and rushed over to the drone and formed into a sphere around the gun. When the Drone fired, Gwen was spared, but Gluuto wasn't so lucky. "No!"

Back outside...

Jack was racing against time to get into the cargo bay. When he got into the hold, he accidently crashed, destroying the pod and ejecting him away from the flaming pod.

The door to the cargo bay door closed. As Jack stood up, he removed his space suit's helmet.

Seconds later, a large foot came down in front of him. Jack looked up to see who it was. He was horrified to see that it was Vilgax.

"Hello, Jack." Vilgax said, staring down the teen that had caused him so much trouble.

Jack knew he was doomed. Vilgax had only referred to him by his grandpa's last name, so if Vilgax referred to him as Jack, he knew he had gotten Vilgax pissed.

"You are going to regret sending me to the Null Void." Vilgax said as his right eye twitched. "For what little remains of your miserable life!" Vilgax raised his fist to punch where Jack was, but when he brought his fist down, the emerald eyed teen got out of the way.

Jack ran, not because he was scared- okay, fear had a lot to do with that. Regardless, he knew that as a human, he didn't stand a chance of beating Vilgax. Sure, his mom could beat Vilgax, but she had plumber training and when she fought Vilgax, she had access to high tech weapons.

Jack ran down a corridor and tried to hide. "Look, the Omnitrix is in self destruct mode." Jack said, looking at the Omnitrix. "What's the point? Even if you get it from me, you'll just wind up getting blown to bits with the rest of the universe."

"I will take my chances." Vilgax said as he walked in the direction that Jack ran. He turned his head to the right and failed to find Jack. He turned and continued looking around for the human teen.

Outside, Myaxx and Tetrax had finished cutting through the tethers. The ship's current pilot, who was Gwen, started the landing sequence.

Back in the cargo hold, Jack continued to run, panting as he did so. He knew it was only a matter of time before Vilgax found him. He saw the airlock opening button. He ran over to it and thought up a plan.

From behind him stepped Vilgax. Jack turned around and gasped. He stumbled backwards as Vilgax walked towards him.

"I'll make you a deal. I won't fight you for the Omnitrix, but you have to promise you'll find the creator and stop it from self destructing." Jack bargained.

Vilgax glared at Jack. "I do not make deals."

Jack pressed a button on his spacesuit. He was magnetically attached to the floor of the cargo hold. He put on the helmet of his spacesuit. "That's funny, neither do I." Jack turned and pressed the open button. "Seibai bye Vilgeek." Jack said as the cargo bay door opened.

Vilgax was sucked out. He tried to hold on with his claws, but he lost his grip in the end.

Jack closed the cargo bay door when he was sure Vilgax was gone. "Yes!" Before Jack could take off the space suit's helmet, the ship shook as it entered the planet's atmosphere.

In the bridge, Gwen was having a hard time flying the ship, seeing as it was meant to be flown by someone who had a completely different anatomy.

"Come on, you can fly this thing." Gwen said as she pressed buttons at random to see which ones worked and which ones didn't. "It's just like riding a bike." She pressed a yellow circular panel, which caused a bunch of what appeared to be levers pop up. "A huge, super high tech alien bike."

EDNA, who had been hiding through the whole encounter with Vilgax, appeared. She whirred to get Gwen's attention.

"A little help here please EDNA?" Gwen asked. EDNA connected herself to the ship's computer and began to try to help Gwen control the ship.

Jack came in and saw the Eyebot and his cousin trying to control the Resolute.

"What're you doing?" Jack asked. He ran over to ENDA and Gwen

EDNA angrilly bleeped.

"Duh, we're trying to keep us from ending up as a junk pile on Xenon." Gwen said with mild frustration. "Don't just stand there, help us!"

Jack went to grab one of the levers. He saw pink slime on it. "What happened?"

"Gluuto sacrificed himself to save me from one of Vilgax's drones." Gwen said. "It's called being totally unselfish, something I'm not sure you understand."

"I'm not selfish."

"Not all the time." Gwen said before the ship shook. Jack and Gwen were knocked over.

"O-kay... That's not it." Jack said as he and Gwen got up.

Jack and Gwen continued to pull lever, but no matter how many they pulled, none of them did anything.

"Have we pulled that one yet?" Jack asked, pointing to a lever that looked like the handle of a shovel.

"I don't think so." Gwen said.

Jack and Gwen grabbed onto the lever. They tried with all their might to pull it, but it just wasn't enough.

The ship was heading towards the planet's surface, which was rocky and was covered in mushroom shaped plants.

Eventually, they managed to pull the lever, which caused the ship to pull up. Before Gwen and Jack could breath a sigh of relief, the ship, after dodging several columns of rock, rammed into one, causing the ship to crash.

"Gwen! Hit the brakes!" Jack yelled after he saw that the ship was heading for a canyon.

Gwen pulled a lever that caused the resolute's air brakes to deploy, which started to slow the ship down.

Eventually the resolute came to a stop. Jack and Gwen were thrown out of the pilot's chair and into the windshield.

The Storyteller stood up. He rubbed his helmet before saying: "What happened? Where's Vilgax?"

Tetrax and Myaxx ran in. Tetrax saw what was left of his pilot. "Gluuto."

Gwen then explained what happened. "He died trying to save me."

"We better find Azmuth." Tetrax said.

Soon...

Jack, Tetrax, The Storyteller, Gwen, and Myaxx were riding hover boards as the flew towards where they had been told Azmuth was. EDNA had chosen to remain with the ship.

Myaxx was the first to speak. "Azmuth's compound is right through that valley."

They came to a plateau that could only be access by a single bridge. They flew into the sole opening.

Inside the plateau...

They were in a high tech chamber, which had been overrun by vines. "Looks like it's the gardener's day off."

"More likely the gardener's not on break, but dead." The Storyteller said as he looked around. "Reminds me of Vault 22, which, before you ask, is a bad thing."

"Hello! Is anyone home?" Jack shouted.

"Jack, it's not wise to draw attention to yourself in places like this."

"Why? There's no one here."

"Yeah. That's what worries me." The Storyteller readied his laser rifle.

"Tell us you didn't bring us all the way here for nothing." Tetrax said to Myaxx.

"The compound must've been over run." She explained. "Azmuth was always worried his lab might be discovered by those after the Omnitrix. But I thought he was just being paranoid."

As the five of them made their way deeper and deeper into the compound, they were unaware that they were being watched.

The Storyteller though he saw something on his armor's radar.

"Any chance he escaped?" Tetrax asked.

Gwen saw some vines moving. They uncovered something, which resembled a closed venus fly trap, it opened up, showing what it was. It was a Florauna, Wildvine's species, however, they were more besital looking than Jack's transformation, and were brownish green. It rose up and tried to grab Gwen, but three red lasers hit it, causing it to back down. More feral Floraunas emerged and tried to get closer to the group.

"Wildvines!" Shouted Jack as he took aim using the blaster that Tetrax had given him and Gwen. Their blasters fit around their arm

The five of them fired at the approaching Floraunas. One tried to sneak up on Myaxx from behind, but she quickly turned and shot at it with her pistol.

One of the Floraunas flung three egg plant shaped plants at the group. When the eggplants hit the ground, they exploded like bombs.

Tetrax formed a shield around himself and his allies.

Gwen and Jack were tossed back by the force of the explosion.

Two of the Floruanas tried to wrap around Tetrax, but he got them to back off by creating spikes all over his body, tearing through the vines.

Jack looked up as a Florauna came down to try to grab him. He was paralyzed with fear as the plant based alien came towards him.

"Jack, look out!" Gwen shouted as she pushed Jack out of the way. Now it was Gwen who was grabbed by the Florauna. "Help!" She screamed as she was dragged off.

"That's it! It's hero time!" Jack prepared to activate the Omnitrix.

"Jack, no! You'll accelerate the self destruct countdown." Warned Myaxx, who was wrestling with one of the Floraunas.

"I don't care." Jack said as he slammed down on the dial. He was transformed into Four Arms.

"Jack!" Gwen shouted as she saw Four Arms run to try to rescue her.

"I'm coming!" Four Arms tried to get towards Gwen, but various vines tried to get a hold of him.

The 'mouth' that held Gwen closed shut. It then went into a hole. Gwen was gone, or so they thought.

"No!" Four Arms shouted as he broke free from the vines. He then ran over to the hole to find that it was a hatch. Right when Four Arms got to it, the hatch closed. As Four Arms tried to get the hatch open, the rest of the Floruanas left. "Gwen!" Four Arms pounded on the hatch.

Tetrax looked over to Four Arms. "Jack, she's gone."

Four Arms continued punching the closed hatch. "No! I've got to save her!"

"Jack, there were too many." The Storyteller explained. "The Floraunas weren't going to stop until they had one of us."

"She sacrificed herself to save me!" Four Arms got up and walked over to the wall. "It should've been me!" He punched the wall. "It should've been me!" That next punch shook the foundation. "It should've been me!" That next punched caused part of the ceiling to come down on Four Arms.

Four Arms panted as the Omnitrix timed out. When he went back to being Jack, the human fell to his knees.

"It should've been me." Jack turned to Myaxx. "This is all your fault!" Jack spat, blinded by anger.

"My fault?"

"Yeah. I you never helped the creator make this damned thing, then I would've never found it, and Gwen would still be alive."

"Jack." Tetrax tried to intervene.

"I am a selfish and self centered being, but it takes one to know one." She tried to grab Jack, but Tetrax got in the way.

"That's enough, both of you! We still need to find the creator." Tetrax turned to face Myaxx. "Myaxx, if Azmuth did survive an attack like that, where would he go?" The petrosapien asked.

Soon...

Jack, The Storyteller, Tetrax, and Myaxx came to door, which Myaxx opened up. On the other side was a tunnel that looked like it had been drilled through.

Tetrax and Myaxx took off on their hoverboards. Jack was about to head off, he took a look at the hatch that Gwen had been dragged through.

"I'm sorry Gwen." Jack said before he went down the tunnel.

The Storyteller stood on his hoverboard as he flew in the direction that Jack went. He flew besides him and looked at the teen, but saying nothing.

As the four of them made their way through the tunnel, Jack had caught up to Tetrax.

"You okay?" Tetrax asked.

"Just wondering what I'm gonna to have to tell Grandpa about-." Jack was experiencing a lot of grief.

"I'm sorry. I know what you're going through." Tetrax began to tell a story. "I was young, I didn't care about anybody but myself, so it made sense that I wound up a mercenary, a soldier for hire. I was loyal to whoever paid me the most, no matter how bad they were. It was only a matter of time before I would come to work for the worst of the worst. Vilgax. I stole the last piece of the puzzle that Vilgax needed to invade my homeworld. When my people didn't bow at his feet, he destroyed the entire planet to make an example out of it. Vilgax did the dirty work, but he couldn't've done it without my help." Tetrax had finished his story. "So when I heard he was after the Omnitrix, I vowed to never let another powerful weapon fall into his claws again." Tetrax clenched his fist.

Tetrax's story made Jack think. "This is all my fault. I saw that the watch was acting weird at the reactor, but I used it anyway. I must've set off the self destruct." A realization hit Jack. "Gwen's dead because of me! And everyone else will be too."

"We both have made costly mistakes, but if we don't find Azmuth, and stop the self destruct, then Gwen, and Gluuto, and all the others will have lost their lives for nothing." Tetrax said in an attempt to keep Jack from losing sight of the mission. "And we're not going to let that happen."

Jack shook his head.

"Look out!" Myaxx said after coming to a stop. Jack and Tetrax however went into a laser tripwire, which set off a booby trap. In the section of tunnel that was ahead of Jack and Tetrax, a wall of plasma formed. With no time to avoid it, Tetrax grabbed onto Jack and held onto him tightly. He jumped through the plasma wall and landed. Both he and the human were unharmed. Tetrax set Jack down.

A bunch of yellow lights turned on. A panel opened, revealing what seemed to be camera lens. The lens zoomed in on Tetrax and Jack. It then focused on Jack's wrist.

"The Omnitrix." A booming voice said. Unlike Optimus, whose voice(which despite being authoritative), showed that he was compassionate, this one showed only anger and frustration.

A hologram of a massive armored being was projected. The being had black grey armor, shoulder pads that glew green a golden hourglass symbol on his chest, rather short, thick legs, a single green eye on a tiny head, massive, four fingered hands that held some kind of staff.

"What're you doing with My Omnitrix?" The hologram demanded an answer.

"'My Omnitrix'? You, you're the creator?" Jack asked.

Before Azmuth could respond, Myaxx and the Storyteller flew over. "Myaxx, you traitorous worm." Azmuth was furious. "Is that you?"

"Nice to see you too, boss." Myaxx said sarcastically.

"This is Azmuth? He's taller than I expected." The Storyteller said.

Jack approached the hologram. "I'm Jack Darby, I wound up with the Omnitrix, and now it's in its self destruct countdown, and-" Jack was interrupted.

"I know." Azmuth said. "I invented it."

"Oh, yeah." Jack then remembered who he was talking to. "So anyway, if you could just turn ti off-" As Jack approached the hologram projector, a bunch of doors closed.

"Maybe Jack didn't make it clear why we're here." Tetrax said as he and the Storyteller got ready for battle.

"I understand completely." Azmuth said. "You misuse my creation, and now the whole universe will be destroyed."

Jack stepped forward. "Listen here, I don't know why you don't want to help us, but my cousin sacrificed her life to stop this thing!" Jack shouted.

"That is none of my concern." Azmuth said.

Jack glared at the camera. He activated the Omnitrix and selected Cannonbolt. "It is now." Jack slammed down on the dial and transformed. Jack became Cannonbolt.

"Let's roll!" Cannonbolt shouted as he got onto his hands and knees. He then rolled up into a ball and rammed into the door. When he made contact with the door, he was zapped. He was tossed back to the others.

"That look like it really hurt." Myaxx said when Cannonbolt landed.

Cannonbolt got back up and charged at the door again. He was zapped by the door again and was sent back to where his friends were, only this time, he managed to land on his feet. "I've come too far, I've lost too much to be stopped now." Cannonbolt got into the position a track runner gets before they take off. He then rolled up into a ball before ramming the door one final time. He broke it down and was with Azmuth, the Omnitrix's creator.

"Remind me not to get that kid mad." Myaxx said after seeing Jack's display of rage.

Cannonbolt stood in a high tech alien lab. In front of him stood Azmuth, who wasn't even paying attention to him. "You are going to turn this thing off." Jack demanded.

"You think you're a hero, but you're a fool." Azmuth was pissed. "You've only sped up the countdown. Because of you the universe has even less time."

"If the universe is going down, I'm going to have the pleasure of kicking your ass first." Cannonbolt said. He rolled up into a ball and rammed Azmuth, striking him in the head.

Azmuth's head sparked and emitted smoke. He fell over as cannonbolt landed, after which, he panted.

A part of Azmuth, or should I say his suit opened up, revealing that this was just armor. Out from the opening crawled a Galvan.

"Look at what you did. Do you know what it takes to break in a biosuit like that?" Azmuth, a Galvan who wore a green and black robe, asked.(Azmuth looks like he does in Omniverse.)

"He's a Grey Matter?" Asked a confused Cannonbolt.

"Who knew?" Myaxx said while shrugging.

"Yeah, I'm a Galvan, so what? Does that give you the right to destroy my property and invade my privacy?"

"Enough talk. Stop the countdown!" Tetrax pointed at Azmuth. The Omnitrix timed out, reverting Cannonbolt to Jack.

"I say let the Omnitrix self destruct and take the universe with it." Azmuth said pessimistically. "Best thing that could happen, probably. Start fresh. Destruction before creation." Jack and Tetrax looked at eachother like they just both messed up.

"So this is Azmuth." The Storyteller said. "In most of the stories about you that I've heard, you're the wisest being in an average of four galaxies, and, you use your wisdom to help others."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. And we need you to deactivate the Omnitrix so that the strongest weapon you made doesn't destroy us all."

"I didn't create a weapon. All of you did, I created the ultimate device for understanding all the beings of the galaxy." Azmuth then turn to face Jack, shooting an accusing stare. "You and Vilgax are no different."

This may have been the first time somebody said that to him, but Jack hated being compared to Vilgax.

"That's not true." Jack said, shaking his head. "Sure, I've messed around with the watch a few times, but I've helped a lot of people with it too." Jack looked at the floor. "At first, I'll I cared about was that I wasn't going to be able to go hero anymore, that I'd be stuck being plain old me. Sometimes you have to see the good in people and not just be a selfish jerk."

Before Azmuth could respond to that, rumbling was felt. The ceiling of the lab started to collapse.

Jack, Azmuth, Myaxx, the Storyteller, and Tetrax ran out. Jack picked up Tetrax and held him in his hands.

What they saw outside was shocking. It was Vilgax, who had brought with him an army of various types of drones. Vilgax was standing on a floating platform as he held Sixsix, who still had his mutated head out, on a leash.

"Azmuth, creator of the Omnitrix." He said. "At last we finally meet. What an honor, for you."

Azmuth looked like he was ready to fight, while Jack looked more than a bit afraid.

Pods fell to the surface, they were the tripod drones that Jack fought we he first got the Omnitrix.

The Storyteller readied his laser rifle.

"This ends now!" Vilgax glared at his foes. He released Sixsix from his harness.

Humanoid drones fired at them while ones that resembled airplanes flew at them.

Tetrax brought up a wall that would give them cover from the blaster fire. He saw in the corner of his eye that Jack was about to activate the Omnitrix. "Use it now and we kiss this half of the universe goodbye." Tetrax warned.

After hearing that, Jack had another idea. He stuck his hand into the arm cannon and prepared for battle.

As a missile hit the crystal wall, shaking it, Azmuth, who was now on Jack's head, spoke. "Why do you continue to defend the Omnitrix when it's hopeless? I do not understand."

"That's because the only thing you think about is yourself." Jack held up his blaster. "Now hop off. I've got a world to save." Azmuth got off of Jack's black hair, and slid down his side. On the way down, Azmuth reached into Jack's pocket and grabbed Jack's phone. Carrying Jack's phone, Azmuth got out of the way of the human teen.

Jack climbed over the crystal barricade and began firing at the drones. He took out about a dozen of them, each with only a shot or two.

Jack continued firing at as many of the drones as he could, taking out all the ones that got near him.

A bunch of flying drones came in from overhead. They fired at Jack, but missed. They came in for another pass, but before they could fire, they were caught in spheres of pinkish magenta mana energy. The drones were destroyed before they were forced down towards a large group of drones.

Jack looked over his shoulder and saw a light coming out of a cloud of dust. He then saw the silhouettes of two people, Gwen, and strangely, Gluuto.

Jack became teary eyed when he saw Gwen, who he thought was gone forever. He ran up to Gwen and gave her a big hug.

"Gwen!" Jack said, almost on the verge of crying.

Tetrax ran up and saw who was with Gwen. "Gluuto!" Tetrax was relieved to have his pilot back.

"You're alive." Jack and Tetrax said at once.

"We thought you were gonners." Jack was relieved to have his cousin back.

"Gluuto save me from the Wildvines." Gwen explained. "Turns out Gluuto's species can regenerate from the smallest of parts, like what was left on my clothes after he went splat."

Jack looked at Tetrax, as if to ask for an explanation. Tetrax just said. "Who knew?"

An explosion went off the Storyteller had his gun pointed to the sky and was firing at the flying drones. "May be ironic coming from me, but less talking, more fighting!"

Sixsix came in and rammed into Tetrax. More drones approached the rest of them.

Jack and Gwen turned to face each other and nodded. The two of them, the Storyteller, Myaxx, and Gluuto charged.

As Jack fired at the drones, Myaxx jumped over him. She performed a somersault before coming down with a side kick to destroy one of the humanoid drones.

When two of the others turned to see what happened to their conrad, they were shot at and destroyed by Jack.

While Jack played Rambo, Gwen took much more graceful approach. She levitated one of the smaller humanoid drones and tossed it at one of the smaller ones. She then picked up another one and hurled it at an approaching aerial drone. Two more were about to get the drop on Gwen and were about to shoot her, but one after the other, they were grabbed by an orange tentacle."

Gluuto had grabbed those two drones and swung them around his head. The then used his tentacles to grab onto the head and blaster of another one, tearing it apart and destroying.

The Storyteller fired at the drones. He took out a few dozen before he ran out of ammo. He switched to another weapon, a laser pistol. He began using the weaker energy weapon. He took out more drones with headshots.

Tetrax meanwhile was fighting Sixsix, who shot at him with all his blasters. Tetrax, who had turned his arm into a blade avoided the blasts. He then grew two spikes on his back that he grabbed and threw at Sixsix, who dodged them. The spikes did hit a pair of flight drones that were just hovering there. Sixsix then rammed into Tetrax, grabbing onto him and flying high into the air, roaring as he did so. Sixsix then tossed Tetrax into what might've been the nest of some bird like creature.

As Jack continued to blast the drones, he was caught off guard when one of them shot his blaster out of his hand. Jack was left defenceless as that drone approached him. However, he was saved by Myaxx when she came down and delivered a sidekick to destroy it.

Four more of the jet drones appeared. Jack and Myaxx gasped when they landed. But not as planes. The unfolded to become very simple transformers. They were surrounded and focusing on Jack.

Jack, who had only a few options left removed the piece on the Omnitrix that stopped it from unleashing a lot of energy. Myaxx heard the energy building up. She turned to she what Jack was doing and thought that it was a bad idea.

"What've you done?!" Myaxx asked.

"You know, I ask myself that question all the time." Jack said.

A massive wave of energy built up. It disable all the drones, as well as shut down the platform Vilgax stood on. Sixsix was thrown off the side of the cliff. The Storyteller's armor was affected as well. When the blast had cleared, all of the drones had shut down and had fallen over.

Azmuth saw what Jack did. He ran up to the human teen, who was standing up on one knee. The galvan hopped onto Jack's leg. "I'm still not sure if the universe is worth saving, but while I think about it..." He removed the Omnitrix core, which shut it off.

Jack looked at the now coreless Omnitrix. He heard a rumbling sound. Looking behind him, Jack saw a four clawed hand reach up. More than a dozen triod drones were making their way up the sides of the plateau. On the shoulder of one of them stood Vilgax. On another, there was Sixsix.

Jack turned his attention to Vilgax. "It's over Vilgax! The Omnitrix is deactivated." Jack showed his arch enemy the coreless watch that he wore.

"But the creator of the Omnitrix is not." He then looked at Azmuth. "You will build me an even more powerful device!" He clinched his clawed fist.

Azmuth turned and ran for cover. Vilgax commanded the drone that he was on to fire, which it did. It shot missiles at the group as they ran. Gluuto was the only one caught in the blast and was tossed over towards one of the other tripod drones.

Azmuth looked around for the Omnitrix core. He saw that he had dropped it. He then ran towards it while Tetrax got punched by the tripod drone that Sixsix was on.

When the drone brought its fist up to see what it had grabbed, it opened its fist to see that there was a hole in it. Suddenly, crystal spikes grew out of it and in various places around its body. It seized up before it collapsed. When it fell, Jack was near it. Gwen used her powers to grab Jack and get him away from the blast radius. She brought him behind cover.

"What would you do without me?" Gwen asked.

"Sure am glad I don't have to find out." Jack said.

"What's that?"

"I said Vilgax is kicking our asses, and I can't do anything about it. I'm just a plain teen without the Omnitrix."

"Don't you get it? You don't need that thing. What about all the times you saved grandpa, or your mom, or the 'bots, or me, or the other people you've saved when you weren't an alien." Gwen said, getting Jack's spirits up. "Think back to before you got the Omnitrix. You save you mom from Airachnid, you went to Cybertron and recovered Optimus' memories, and you helped save Arcee and Optimus from freezing to death. Jack, you're a hero, even if you can't transform." Jack smiled after he heard this.

He saw Azmuth run up, carrying the repaired Omnitrix core.

"What gives? I thought you pulled the plug on this thing and couldn't turn it back on." Asked a confused Jack. Azmuth inputted a code into the Omnitrix much like how Jack 10,000 did/will do.

"Who told you that?" Azmuth asked. "Not me, that's for sure."

The Omnitrix blinked solid green.

"Alright! I'm back in the hero business!" Exclaimed a triumphant Jack.

Azmuth unlocked a new alien for Jack. "Here, try this one on for size." He jumped down onto the dial, transforming him into his biggest alien yet or ever.

He was turned into an alien that wore a white skin tight jumpsuit. He had a red blade on each of his wrists, a black collar and a red horn on his head. On his chest there was a red cone shape on it. In the circle of the cone was an Omnitrix dial.

The sheer size of this one earned looks of shock from everyone, including Vilgax and Sixsix.

"That's a big alien." Gwen said, unable to comprehend what she was seeing.

"Woah. Check me out! I'm not just big, I'm Way Big!" Way Big announced. He stepped on two of the tripod drones. Then kicked a third one, which hit yet another drone. Then grabbed the last two with his massive hands and crumped them up into a ball, which he tossed effortlessly away.

Three of the flying drones tried shooting at Way Big, but they served more as an annoyance than anything else. He swung his arm at the first two, but he missed. The third one however, he scored a direct hit on it. As the first two came back in for an attack, he swatted one of them, and when the second one came in for an attack, he crushed it with both of his hands.

As Vilgax tried to run, Way Big bent down and grabbed the fleeing warlord.

Sixsix tried to run, but he was stopped by a patch of crystals that grew up from the ground suddenly.

"Leaving?" Tetrax asked before suckpunching Sixsix, knocking the alien's lights out.

"Release me! Or suffer the consequences!" Vilgax demanded.

"Pretty big talk from such a little guy." Way Big said. Vilgax clawed Way Big's hand. "Ow!" He yelled. Even at 300 feet tall, that still hurt. "Oh that's it! You are so outta here!"

A Way Big geared up for a throw, Vilgax had the look that said 'Oh shit'. The To'kustar threw Vilgax into space, and unintentionally, sent him into the path of Cybertron, and, due to the strength of the throw, would only take a week to reach the metal planet..

Way Big formed a J with his hand as the Omnitrix timed out, reverting the massive alien back to his relatively tiny true self.

Later...

Azmuth was working with the Storyteller to build a ship out of the head of one of the tripod drones. Jack approached the two of them.

"What're you two doing?" Jack asked.

"Improvising a ride. This place is getting too noisy for me. I'm heading back home to Galvan Prime." Azmuth said.

"Mr Azmuth, I just wanted to say, thanks for fixing the Omnitrix." Jack held up the watch. "If you want it back, it is yours."

"I created the Omnitrix to help all the beings of the galaxy grow closer together. And if a human can make that happen, I see no reason why you shouldn't have it." He finished making the final connection. "Besides, that thing is nothing but trouble, always has been. You keep it. Good riddance."

Before walking off, Azmuth tossed Jack his phone. Jack didn't know how to react to what just happened, so he just pocketed his phone.

The Storyteller got into the ship that he and Azmuth made. "You coming?" Azmuth asked Myaxx after he entered the makeshift ship.

With a hand on her hip, Myaxx asked: "Are you going to give me some respect from now on?"

"Eh, I wouldn't count on it."

"Guess it is better than that prison planet." Myaxx said as she joined her old boss and the Storyteller.

"Wait, Azmuth, before you go, you have to tell me how to work this thing."

"Don't you want to figure it out on your own? You know, like how a true hero would?" He asked.

"Hmm. Kinda."

Azmuth chuckled. "I like that boy." The door to the ship closed. Seconds later, the ship took off and flew towards Galvan Prime.

"Oh man. We should get home so we can have a bit of normal time after all this." Jack turned to Gluuto. "Slimer, think you could drive us back to Earth?" Jack asked.

After some unintelligible noises, Gluuto responded in English. "No problem."

"You speak english, and you understand everything I've said?" Jack asked.

"Every word. Shizno." Gluuto then moved on.

Again, Jack looked at tetrax, asking for an answer. Again, his only response was: "Who knew?"

"I have a feeling it's going to be a long trip back home."

Seven days later...

The flight back was a lot longer. Whereas the flight there took only a day, getting back took a week due to the lack of shortcuts.

After Jack and Gwen made sure that they had all their stuff from the Resolute, Tetrax took off, but not before leaving Jack something.

"Thanks for the ride!" Gwen shouted as she waved by.

"And the cool gift. Visit soon!"

"Well, after an adventure like that, bet you guys are looking forward to a nice, normal day."

"Yeah. We should go to the mall, and do what you guys want to do."

"Hold that thought alien watch boy." Miko dialed the base. After a few seconds, she got a response. "Hey Arcee, guess who's back from his intergalactic road trip?"

"Arcee? Oh scrap." Jack remembered that he and Arcee never had their talk.

"Huh? You want us there too? Okay." Miko hung up. "Arcee says Optimus has something he wants to tell us about." A space bridge opened. "That's probably for us."

Chapter end.


	38. Regeneration

Autobot outpost Omega-1...

After having arrived less than an hour ago, Jack, Miko, and Raf had been filled in on what the 'bots had been doing in the past week. Apparently, they were trying to find these things called the Omega keys, which would restore Cybertron. Apparently, they had all four of them, but Starscream stole them after he snuck into the base. Now they were being told that they had no way of getting to Cybertron to get the keys back from the Decepticons.

Miko was currently wondering if she could live on Cybertron with the 'bots.

"You know, I might not be the first human on Cybertron, but I can still be the first human exchange student." Miko, who was sitting on Bulkhead's shoulder, said.

"Why didn't you tell us about the Omega keys before?" Jack asked. "Okay, well I was on away from the Earth for a week, so you guys have a pass for not telling me, but why didn't you tell Miko and Raf?"

"Since you were on your not so little space trip with Gwen, you probably didn't notice, but things have been kind of intense around here lately."

"Things were intense on my end."

"How so?" Optimus asked.

"Well, me, Tetrax, and Gwen went to Incarsecon, to find Azmuth. While we were there, we freed this lady named Myaxx who's the same species as Vilgax, because I thought she was the creator of the Omnitrix. It turned out that she wasn't the creator, but his assistant. She did however tell us that Azmuth was on Xenon. We went to that planet, but before we landed, Vilgax and Sixsix attacked. We then found Azmuth who's a Galvan like Grey Matter. Vilgax attacked again. Azmuth deactivated the self destruct countdown, and also unlocked a new alien, this really, really big one named Way Big. I then threw Vilgax into space, and a week later, we got back." Jack said, summarizing what had happened to him over the past week. "Any questions?"

Everybody was looking at Jack like they did Ratchet when he said three humans in the base was enough.

When nobody spoke up, Arcee said: "Okay, moving on."

"So, you guys could really be going home soon, huh?" Raf asked his best friend, Bumblebee.

"Don't worry, Raf." Miko assured her sbhf(second best human friend). "You'll come visit!" She looked to Bulkhead. "Once we get our place set up, he can bunk with us, right, Bulk?"

"Uh, Miko?" Bulkhead said awkwardly.

"You are taking me with you, right?" Miko asked.

Before Bulkhead could say anything, Ratchet spoke up. "Aren't we getting ahead of ourselves here?" He asked. "Not only do we lack any actual method of reaching Cybertron, but Starscream now controls the sole means of our planet's restoration."

"As far as we know." Optimus added.

"You think Starscream's rejoined the Cons?" Smokescreen asked.

"He might've used the Omega keys to buy back Megatron's favor." Arcee reasoned.

"But that doesn't make sense."

"Oh, and why not?" Ratchet asked.

"Megatron wants Starscream dead more than Vilgax wants me dead." Ratchet looked at Jack with a raised brow. "Back while we were orbiting Xenon, he didn't call me Tennyson, he called me Jack."

"Wow, you really got on squid face's bad side." Arcee chuckled.

"But if anything, Starscream is a risk taker." Jack said. "He allied with the forever knights to get the Red Energon, remember?"

"Hmph." Ratchet disregarded what Jack said. "But without first trying to sell them to the highest bidder? It wouldn't surprise me if he had the nerve to contact us and-"

The communicator beeped.

"Okay, that's weird." Bulkhead said.

"Is it Starscream?" Asked Arcee.

"No." Ratchet answered. "It is Dreadwing. And he wants to meet."

"I forgot, who's Dreadwing?" Miko asked.

"Megatron's current second in command."

Later...

On a mountain top, a ground bridge opened, out of it drove the Autobots.

They transformed and deployed their blasters.

"Drop your weapons!" Bulkhead shouted.

"Hands where we can see them!" Smokescreen shouted.

The sound of thundering footsteps was heard. In the fog, Dreadwing's form could be seen. "I am not here to fight, but to give you this." He gestured to a gold and silver hammer.

Arcee recognized the relic. "The Forge of Solus Prime."

Bulkhead didn't trust this 'con, seeing as he tried to blow him up. "Could be rigged to blow."

Optimus retracted his battle mask. "Dreadwing, what do you ask in return?" The former archivist asked.

"Only that you use it wisely."

"And?" Arcee expected something else. "The Omega keys?"

"In Megatron's possession, under heaviest guard." Dreadwing explained.

"Scream did make a deal with the Cons." Bulkhead said.

"Why?" Optimus wanted to know why Dreadwing was doing this.

Dreadwing explained: "A shadow of disgrace has been cast upon the Decepticons. It is a cause I no longer wish to be part of."

Optimus knew that he might have another chance of convincing Dreadwing to change sides.  
"Then I appeal to you again. Join us and help end this conflict once and for all."

"Betraying my kind is not the same as accepting yours." Dreadwing turned and walked off a cliff. He transformed and flew off.

Later, Autobot Outpost omega-1...

In Optimus' hands, the Forge of Solus Prime came to life.

"It's no Star Saber, but I bet it can shatter Megatron's blade and put some dents into that ugly mug of his." Smokescreen apparently was unaware of a lot of things.

"It's not that kind of hammer." Arcee then thought it over. "Well, maybe it could be."

Ratchet came up with an idea. "With the Decepticons in possession of all four Omega keys, a more appropriate use of the Forge would be to use it to replicate our own."

"Even with such power, their reconstruction would require a level of expertise I do not possess." Optimus spoke of one of the forge's limitations.

"I guess we better hope Megatron doesn't destroy the keys to prevent anyone from ever going home." Arcee had been hanging around Jack too much and thought all villains were sore losers.

"Megatron may be evil, but I believe he will use the keys for their intended purpose." Optimus said somberly.

Bulkhead then said what I think is the dumbest thing he's ever said. "Then I say we let him keep them and do the work for us." Everybody looked at him, knowing that that was a bad idea. "I mean, what difference does it make who restores Cybertron?"

Big Chill appeared in front of Optimus. He was carrying a few bags. He had heard Bulkhead's moment of pure, unadulterated stupidity. "History is written by the victors." He rasped. As the Autobots looked at him, he said: "Pay no attention to me, I'm just getting a few things."

"Simply put, if Megatron revives Cybertron, he will no doubt use it to his political advantage." Optimus explained in terms that he thought was simple.

Bulkhead stammered as he tried to comprehend this. "Y-you lost me."

"In all likelihood, the leader of the Decepticons will portray himself as our planet's savior and brand all Autobots as war criminals."

"And thus, the grand deception continues." Big Chill said before he flew out of the base.

"Megatron's so-called 'achievement' could influence Cybertron for millennia to come, poisoning the sparks and minds of its returning citizens hardly the ideal way to begin a new age."

Big Chill stuck his head through the wall. 'So he thinks people are that dumb? If Megatron does restore cybertron, what's going make everyone forget who destroyed the planet in the first place?' Big Chill then left.

"But there is hope." Optimus said. "For while Megatron may have the keys, he has yet to discover the existence of the Omega lock itself."

"Omega lock?" Bulkhead asked.

Now even Arcee was confused. "Wait now you lost me."

"The Omega lock. That which the four relics were designed to activate." Optimus explained "We must locate the device before Megatron does, and secure it until we can recover the keys."

"There are no more Iacon entries to decode." Ratchet pointed out a glaring problem with what Optimus said. "This lock could be anywhere on Earth!"

Optimus explained where the Omega Lock was. "Actually it is on Cybertron."

"What?" Everybody asked.

"How do you know?" Asked Ratchet.

Optimus swung the Forge of Solus prime over his shoulder. "Alpha Trion revealed its location to me during the message conveyed by the Star Saber."

"And you didn't think to tell us." Ratchet was under the impression that Optimus had lied to them.

"Alpha Trion did not wish it so." Optimus walked over the the ground bridge frame. He began to open up the panels and walked into it. "With the Forge of Solus Prime, we now possess the means of reaching Cybertron. I must work quickly, as our tactical advantage over Megatron will not last long."

The Nemesis...

The Decepticon second in command was walking down the halls of the decepticon warship.

"Dreadwing." Megatron said. Dreadwing stopped in his tracks when Megatron approached him. "I have been searching for you."

Dreadwing played it cool. He turned to face Megatron and bowed. "I am at your service, Lord Megatron."

Megatron, knowing that Starscream was responsible for defiling Skyquake, Dreadwing's brother's, body, Dreadwing and Starscream had some bad blood between each other. "I recognize that Starscream's return to our ranks may be difficult for you, given the loss of your twin under his command." Megatron would be running a tight ship. No one would be turning on anyone. "But your cooperation is essential. We Decepticons will be best-equipped to rule a restored Cybertron only if we are united."

"Understood." Dreadwing begrudgingly replied. "And if it pleases you, master, I intend to reach out to our comrade personally."

Dreadwing walked off. When he was out of sight, Megatron felt the Nemesis shake. "What in the pits of Kaon is that?"

Megatron made his way to the hanger bay. He transformed and flew out to see what had hit the ship He found that the hull of the ship had been hit by a meteorite, or by a projectile, but by a living being, one that had been drifting through space for close to a week.

"Hello, Vilgax." Megatron said after he transformed and landed by the alien warlord.(A.N.: Yes, I know I had Vilgax as the main villain in the last chapter, but he's not going to have much of an impact on the story for a while.)

In the medical bay...

"Rise and shine!" Knockout said to a recently awoken Starscream. "Your T-cog transplant was a success." Before Starscream had a chance to say anything, Knockout continued. "Yes, I am just that good."

Starscream sighed. "Finally. I can't wait to take flight and soar above the clouds."

"Starscream." Knockout and Starscream turned their attention to the medical bay and saw Dreadwing standing there. "I regret to inform you that you will not live to spread your wings ever again." Dreadwing charged up his blaster and took a shot at Starscream, who yelped as he ducked.

"Knockout, help me!" Starscream yelled. Knockout scoffed as he ran out of the medical bay. Dreadwing through down his blaster as he drew his sword. Starscream picked up one of the surgical tools. "Dreadwing, what has gotten into you?" Starscream whimpered as Dreadwing swung his sword, slicing the top of the tool that Starscream held off. "Wait. This is about Skyquake, isn't it? I thought we had put that behind us!"

"So had I!" Dreadwing swung his sword again, which Starscream dodged.

"Aah!" Starscream screamed. "Casualties are an unfortunate consequence of war! But I assure you, your twin met his end with great honor!"

"Which you disgraced by raising him from the dead!" Dreadwing brought up the part that Starscream didn't think he knew about.

"Oh, you know about that." Starscream began to bargain. "There must be something I can do, some form of reparation I can offer to alleviate your anguish!"

"Your spark will suffice!" Dreadwing raised his sword to deliver the killing blow.

"Dreadwing! Stand down!" Megatron ordered.

"This, desecrator must pay for his actions!" He pointed accusingly at Starscream.

"You call this loyalty, master?!" Starscream shrieked fearfully.

"I said stand down!" Megatron glared at his second in command. "That is an order."

"One which I cannot follow." Dreadwing roared as he raised his sword, preparing to execute Starscream. However, Dreadwing became quiet after he had been shot through the torso by Megaron, and with his own blaster none the less.

Starscream panted rapidly. "I'm okay? I'm okay!" He then laughed manically. "Lord Megatron, you have my eternal thanks."

"Do not ever make me regret which one of you I spared." Megatron shot Starscream a death stare. Now he had more pressing matters to attend to. "Knockout, prepare your operating room for our next patient."

Not wanting to end up like Dreadwing, Knockout eagerly replied with a: "Yes sir lord Megatron."

Back at Autobot outpost Omega-1...

While Ratchet worked on the computers, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Arcee discussed their concerned with how Optimus was acting. "Is it my imagination, or has Optimus been acting differently since that message from Alpha Trion?"

Bumblebee buzzed in agreement.

"Yeah, he has been keeping things from us." Bulkhead agreed.

"Even Ratchet's out of the loop."

"Well, give me one good reason Optimus couldn't trust his own teammates, why he couldn't have told us about the Omega lock."

"Because if he had, Megatron would've pulled it out of my head with his patch." Smokescreen said. "It's why Jack didn't trust me when we first met."

"Like it matters." Bulkhead moped. "The Cons are holding all the keys anyway."

Speaking of which...

Back on the Nemesis...

"Tick tock, Knockout. Tick tock!" Starscream shouted as Knockout ran a scanner over the Omega keys. "Megatron's expecting results, and given what we just witnessed, I would say that we cannot afford to disappoint our master."

In Knockout's mind, Starscream wasn't helping out at all. "We? Unless nagging counts, I haven't seen you lift a finger!"

"I am the one who brought him the keys. Do I really need to prove myself further by deciphering how they operate, too?"

"Well, perhaps if my research hadn't been sidelined by someone's cosmetic surgery, I might be further along right now!"

Starscream took one of the keys from Knockout. "Oh, just give it here!" He tried twisting it. He then started beating it against the table.

"Oh, gee. Why didn't I think of that?" Knockout sarcastically asked.

Starscream yelled as he scratched Knockout's paint with the key. He gasped in anger. Knockout picked up another one of the keys and swung it at Starscream. The two keys struck each other, fusing until they were as one. There was a high-pitched whining noise when the two keys fused.

"Do you think?" Knockout asked.

The two elite decepticons each grabbed one of the other Omega Keys.

"Ready? Go!" They struck the keys together, combining them. The keys formed a hologram projector that showed a blue hologram of Cybertron, as well as the location of the Omega Lock.

Starscream laughed evilly. "And that is why Dreadwing is pushing up lug nuts."

"And we are not."

Later...

Megatron was being shown the hologram that Knockout and Starscream discovered. "Of course! Keys are useless without something to unlock." He then turned to face his subordinates. "Target the space bridge for Cybertron."

Autobot Outpost omega-1...

Ratchet was looking over the modifications that Optimus had performed on the ground bridge. "Yet another astonishing convergence of magic and science, courtesy of the ancients."

"And our leader." Smokescreen added.

"It's hard to believe a few swings of that hammer, and bam!" The Autobots turned to face the ground bridge arch.

"Our ground bridge is now a space bridge." Arcee was astonished. "But it's no Omnitrix."

The was a flash of green light, signaling an alert. "Our sensors are detecting a massive Energon burst occurring outside Earth's atmosphere." Ratchet said. "A surge of that kind could only mean one thing, the activation of another space bridge."

"Megatron has discovered that the Omega lock is on Cybertron."

"It appears we have lost our advantage." Ratchet moped.

"But with Megatron unaware that we now possess the means of interstellar travel, the element of surprise remains in our favor." Optimus added.

"We must embark on this mission with every resource at our disposal."

The Autobots went to get the Iacon relics that they had collected.

Bulkhead grabbed the Immobilizer, Bumblebee got the polarity gauntlet, Arcee got the Apex Armor, and Smokescreen got the spark extractor.

When the Autobots made their way to the main room, Arcee brought something up. "Optimus, what about Jack? And Ben?"

"What about them?"

"Jack has the Omnitrix, and Ben has that Kamen Rider form. Like you said, we must embark with every resource at our disposal."

"Jackson and Benjamin are not suitable for this mission. If their abilities should fail, they'll perish in Cybertron's atmosphere."

"Will they?" Smokescreen asked.

On the Nemesis...

Megatron was about to head to cybertron with a fleet of Vehicon flyers.

"Starscream. Assume command in my absence."

"I would be honored, master." He bowed in gratitude.

Megatron ran and then transformed. He and his fleet flew into the space bridge portal.

Back at the Autobot base...

As the space bridge energized, a loud metallic pounding could be heard.

"What's he forging now?" Bulkhead asked.

To answer his question, Optimus entered the room with the repaired Star Saber, which had been destroyed previously. "Megatron must be stopped, no matter the cost." Optimus transformed into his vehicle mode and drove through the vortex. The other Autobots followed suit.

On Cybertron...

The decepticons made their way towards the Omega lock, unaware that they were being stalked by a vicious predator.

They came to a bunch of a broken bridge that had the broken and chewed up body of an insecticon impaled on a pike.

"According to the landmarks displayed by the keys, the object we seek is located deep the within the sea of rust."

One of the vehicons was grabbed by a clawed hand and dragged away silently.

Back at the Autobot base...

Somebody tried to contact the base. Ratchet answered.

"Ah! Optimus?" Ratchet hoped it was Optimus.

"Uh, n-no, Ratchet. It's Jack."

At Jack's house...

Jack, Miko, and Raf were waiting on the front porch of Jack's house in Alamo NV for somebody to pick them up. "Is something wrong? 'Cause my grandpa said he'd pick us up, or he'd have you guys bridge us there. And so far, no one's showed up to pick us up."

"That is because the entire team is rather indisposed at the moment." Ratchet said. This next decision dooming everyone. "I suggest you obtain an alternate method of transport."

"What's he saying?" Miko asked.

"The bots are busy." Came Jack's responce.

"Then tell Ratchet to come get us! It's not like he has anything else to do!" Miko shouted.

"Just go home! I will be in touch later!" Ratchet was mad at what Miko said.

"H-hello? He hung up."

"What crawled up his tailpipe and died?"

"Maybe what came back to life and crawled out of Azmuth's."

"Did Ratchet tell you what's going on?" Raf asked.

"No. They seem to be keeping us in the dark a lot lately, but in their defence, I wasn't around around, so they have an excuse not to tell me. But they should've told you two." Jack said as he reclined in one of the chairs.

"But aren't we their friends? Friends as in tell each other secrets?" Miko asked.

"I thought so too. So basically, this is how they treat me after I saved Cybertron for them."

"Hold on, you saved Cybertron? How?" Miko asked. "Was this before or after you met this 'Azmuth'?"

"Actually, it was during." The Omnitrix wielder said.

"You never told us about what you did with Tetrax." Raf said. "Is now a good time to tell us?"

"I guess so." Jack began to tell Raf and Miko about the events of his previous adventure, but from his point of view.

In the Sea of Rust...

A device was beeping. As the 'cons walked through the ocean of iron oxide, they were caught off guard when Smokescreen rose up from the ground behind them and started firing at the 'cons.

"Wha what just happened?" Only two ideas made sense to Megatron, one, they were under attack by Autobots that were still on Cybertron(like the Dinobots), or two, some insecticons had gone rouge. When he turned to see the attacker, Megatron was shocked to say the least. "Smokescreen? But that's impossible. The Autobots do not possess the means to-"

There was a deep buzzing. Megatron and the vehicons looked to see a large chunk of metal being lifted up. It was Bumblebee using the polarity gauntlet. When he knew the Decepticons saw him, he transformed and drove away.

"Crush them!" Megatron ordered. The vehicons began firing their blasters at the Autobot scout.

While the 'cons were distracted, Bulkhead took aim at them from his vantage point with the immobilizer. He fired it at the 'cons, its blue beam paralyzing a group of the vehicons.

Bulkhead jumped down and began firing at the vehicons as he charged bumblebee drove up beside him and transformed.

From atop a destroyed building, Arcee took pot shots at the 'cons. In her arms, she had the Apex armor. She jumped down. Before she landed, she placed on the indestructible armor.

As Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee ran at the 'cons, smokescreen rose up from the ground and joined them in fighting the 'cons.

"Defend the keys!" Megatron ordered. The vehicons gathered around the four that carried the Omega keys.

As the Autobots got closer to the cons, Arcee began fighting them hand to hand. She grabbed the head of one of the vehicons and ripped it out, taking the spinal column with it. Following that, she grabbed two of them by the back and slammed them into each other

Bumblebee hopped on the shoulders of one of the vehicons and fired at its head. He went to another one and snapped its neck with his feet.

Bulkhead was beating down as many of the 'cons as he could with his mace.

Smokescreen ran at a group of four vehicons. He went down into the ground. The vehicons had their blasters trained on where Smokescreen went into the ground, waiting for him to come up. Smokescreen came up from behind them and shot them in the back.

Megatron growled as he drew his purple bladed Dark Star Saber. He and his army of vehicons charged at the Autobots, who were joined by Optimus Prime.

Prime unholstered the Star Saber from his back and sliced up several of the vehicons effortlessly.

Megatron roared as he ran up to Optimus. The Prime and the former gladiator clashed blades.

"I bested your little blade once, and I shall do it again!" Megatron swung the Dark Star Saber several time, all of which were parried by Optimus. Megatron kicked the Prime in the chest and seconds later, brought his blade down. Optimus parried that blow. He then kick the warlord, sending him back. Megatron roared as he charged at Optimus.

While the two old enemies dueled, the other Autobots were proving the be more than a match for Megatron's far larger army.

After defeating a large section of the vehicons, Bulkhead fired at the four that held the Omega Key with with the Immobilizer. Bumblebee then got besides the green Autobot and used the polarity gauntlet to grab the keys out of their immobilized hands.

Arcee grabbed one of the keys. As did Smokescreen, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee. Megatron had seen what had happened.

While he was distracted, Optimus kicked Megatron away before charging up the Star Saber. He then swung the sword at Megatron, unleashing a wave of laser that when it came into contact with the warlord, threw him onto the roof of what might've been a stadium.

With the Omega keys in hand, the Autobots transformed and drove off.

The vehicons chased after them, some of them transforming and flying after them when they knew they couldn't catch them on foot.

From his vantage point, Megatron stepped forward. "I will have those keys, or I will have your sparks!" He barked.

Smokescreen walked out of a piece of rubble. "I can help with the last part." Smokescreen had in hand the spark extractor.

"The spark extractor!" Megatron knew what kinda damage that could do to cybertronian.

Without having to be ordered to do so, the Vehicons fired at Smokescreen. None of their shots hit. Smokescreen went into the ground, leaving the spark extractor behind. A zapping noise came from the activated super weapon. It radiated out a cloud of particles that extinguished the life force of any poor vehicons unfortunate enough to be caught in the cloud.

Megatron roared in anger. He took the Dark Star Saber and tossed it at the spark extractor, destroying it and shutting off its death field.

Megatron walked down and went to reclaim his blade. When he drew his blade from the ground, he contracted the Nemesis. "Starscream!" Megatron barked. "The Autobots have seized the Omega keys. Send reinforcements immediately!" He ordered.

Back on the Nemesis...

Soundwave and Starscream were looking at a video feed that Knockout was sending. It was of Jack, Miko, and Raf, who were still waiting to be picked up. "Actually, lord Megatron, Soundwave has been briefing me on recent developments regard, and we may have a more effective solution."

At the location of the Omega lock...

The Autobots arrived at the location of how they were going to revive Cybertron. They transformed when they got a piece of rustless metal.

"Our head start won't last long." Arcee said, knowing all too well that Megatron isn't the kind to run off, like, at all.

"This is where Alpha Trion said we'd find it, right?" Asked Smokescreen.

"These are the coordinates." Bulkhead said as he and the others approached what looked like what you'd find outside an art museum. "Doesn't look like much."

Optimus scraped off a bit of rust from the object and found a primitive version of the Autobot logo. He contacted the base. "Ratchet, we have located the Omega lock.

Ratchet's response came with a sigh. "At last."

"According to Alpha Trion, the Omega lock is a conduit to the very Allspark itself." Optimus said. Now wait just a damn minute. Isn't the Allspark not on Cybertron? Eh. We'll burn that bridge when we get to it.

Smokescreen approached his role model. "Optimus, an honor like this shouldn't belong to me."

As if on cue, the keys started to glow gold, as well as emit a high-pitched whining.

The Omega lock itself started to hum deeply.

Lines in the platform that they stood on began to glow. The Omega lock began to power up. It assembled itself, four truly massive columns rising up from the four cardinal directions. They eventually got to the point where they couldn't extend any more and formed a ring around where the 'bots stood. The ring that had formed above them filled with a silvery blue liquid known as cyber matter. The true process was too magnificent to describe in words. It is something that had to be seen in order to fully grasp it.

The Autobots heard a jet approach. They turned to see that it was Megatron. They got ready to fight.

Megatron transformed and landed on the edge of the Omega lock. As he walked towards them, the Autobots got their blasters ready.

Megatron just continued walking forwards. He spoke up. "Autobots, I would suggest that you put a halt to your task - and hand over those keys."

"And why would we do that?" Smokescreen asked.

A space bridge opened behind Megatron. Out from it walked Starscream, Knockout, and Soundwave, each holding a glass container. In each of the containers was one of the humans. Knockout had Miko, Soundwave had Raf, and Starscream had Jack.

"So that I may hand over the humans."

Jack shot Megatron a death stare as he tried to activate the Omnitrix, but found that something was disrupting it. He looked up to see that in his pod, there was a red light that was causing the Omnitrix to be perpetually in recharge mode. 'It's just like what Vilgax uses.' The said to himself.

While the humans felt a mixture of anger and fear, the 'bots were shocked that Megatron could stoop this low.

"And if we refuse?" Optimus asked.

Megatron had the Autobots by their collective throats. "Then I will have no choice but to open the pods," He walked over to Optimus and leaned in. "exposing your pets to Cybertron's toxic atmosphere. And then we can all watch them instantly perish, together."

Optimus shot at Megatron a glare that had behind it the fury of a thousand suns.

To be continued...


	39. Darkest Hour

Transformers Power of Ten; Three things happened last time:

One, Dreadwing tries to kill Starscream for desecrating Skyquake's body, and is executed because of that.

Two, the Autobots, and the Decepticons learn of the location of the

And three, Jack, Miko, and Raf were captured by the decepticons and are going to be used as bargaining chips.

Where we left off...

Miko pounded on the glass of the pod that she was in. "Not how I wanted to spend my first trip to Cybertron."

"Starscream." Megatron commanded.

In a creepy sing song voice, Starscream said: "Jack, it's time to come out and play." He scratched the glass, causing it to screech, which hurt Jack' ears.

Jack looked at Starscream without so much as a shred of fear, he's seen worse. "Go ahead. The Autobots were prepared to sacrifice themselves for my planet. I'll do the me for theirs." Jack said.

"Me, too, creepy." Miko spat at Knockout.

Raf gulped before mumbling. "Mm-hmm."

"Perhaps we should oblige them." Megatron suggested.

Optimus wanted to restore Cybertron, but the safety of his team's human allies came first. "If my decision dooms the future of the Autobot cause on Cybertron, so be it. But I will never forsake our human allies." Optimus stuck the Star Saber into the ground.

Arcee sighed before removing the Apex armor. She tossed it over to the Star Saber. The other Autobots tossed their iacon relics over to the Star Saber.

The kids couldn't believe that the Autobots would give up reviving their homeworld to save them. The thought that this was all their fault ran through their heads. But they shouldn't feel sorry for themselves. This is all Ratchet's fault.

"Now, if you please, the Omega Keys." Megatron held out his hand.

The Autobots glared at Megatron furiously.

"One at a time." Megatron said.

Knock out stepped forward. "You first, big boy."

Bulkhead looked to Optimus, who nodded. He walked towards the red Aston Martin Decepticon.

Bulkhead slammed the key into Knockout's outstretched hand. "If I don't get the girl home, I'll make you eat this key."

"You're welcome." Knockout sarcastically said.

Bulkhead groaned as he carried the pod that Miko was in.

"Get scrapped." The Japanese exchange student spat at the 'con.

Bumblebee was next. He walked up to Soundwave. The semi mute 'bot handed the 'con without a face the Omega key, who in turn gave Bumblebee the pod that Raf was in. Bumblebee beep and buzzed angrily. As he went back to the other 'bots.

All that was left was Jack. That would be a problem, seeing as there are four Omega keys, but Megatron had an idea that made Jack worth double what the others are worth.

"If this human bears the Omnitrix, and was important enough to entrust with the Key to Vector Sigma, he's worth two Omega keys."

Arcee and Smokescreen stepped forward. Starscream placed the pod that had Jack on to the ground.

Starscream pointed his missile at Arcee and Smokescreen. "No tricks." Apparently, he doesn't know Jack. "The keys, if you please." He held out his hands. The two autobots each placed the keys into Starscream's hands.

Arcee looked at the pod and saw a helpless look on her partner's face. She never saw him looking like this. Even before he got the Omnitrix.

Suddenly, a space bridge opened up. Out of it ran a dozen vehicons. They surrounded the Autobots and the humans.

Autobot Outpost omega-1...

Ratchet got a call from someone, and again, he thought it was from Optimus. He answered the call.

"Optimus, were you successful?" He asked.

At Jack and June's house...

June had come home to the Rust Bucket park in front of her house. Apparently Max and Gwen were waiting for Jack and the others. And since June didn't know where kids were, she called the base.

"Ratchet? It's June." Jack's mother said. "How are you?" She asked.

Ratchet stammered before saying: "Busy, miss Darby. I am-"

June interrupted the Autobot medic. "Ratchet, it's Tennyson now, June Tennyson."

"Any way, I am expecting urgent news from the Autobots." Ratchet said.

"Oh."

"Is Jack with them?" June asked.

"No. Why?" Ratchet said. [Me: Ha ha haha ha ha ha!]

"I haven't seen him since he got back from Xenon, and he isn't returning my calls." She said.

"I will have Jack contact you immediately should I hear from him. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must keep the comm lines clear." Rachet disconnected the line.

"Ratchet? Hello?" June felt insulted.

"Aunt June, what happened?" Asked Gwen, who was sitting on the front porch.

"He hung up on me."

"Something doesn't seem right." Max, who was sitting on a metal chair next to Gwen, said. "June, Gwen, get in the Rust Bucket. There's some place we should head to."

Back on Cybertron...

As the Autobots were surrounded by the Vehicons, the Decepticons prepared to activate the Omega lock.

"Now bear witness as a new era dawns on Cybertron." Megatron said as he, Starscream, Soundwave, and Knockout each inserted one of the keys into the slots on the Omega lock, powering it up. There was a flash of golden light coming from the Omega Lock. When it cleared, a holographic sphere was visible. The pool of Cyber Matter began to energize. "Behold! The age of the Decepticons!" Megatron proclaimed.

Megatron pressed a button that fired a blue beam of energy at a building, causing it to be restored.

"By the Allspark." Optimus was unable to believe what he had seen.

Bumblebee buzzed in amazement.

"Whoa." Miko and Raf were awestruck.

Jack however, was unimpressed. He'd seen a lot more than Miko and Raf.

"Instant home makeover." Miko added.

"Shiny." Knockout was impressed.

Optimus stepped forward. "You have what you want, Megatron." The Prime said. "This conflict is between Autobots and Decepticons. Allow me to return the humans to Earth." Apparently Optimus didn't know who he was dealing with.

"Oh, I wouldn't recommend it." Megatron said. "They'll be far safer here." He then turned to Starscream. Optimus glared at Megatron. "Is the space bridge locked on target?" He asked his first lieutenant.

"Per your instructions, Lord Megatron."

"Excellent." Megatron then turned to face the Autobots. "Why rule only one world when I could rule two?"

A space bridge opened above the Omega lock. Megatron then pressed the fire button, sending a blue beam through the space bridge.

Optimus realized what Megatron was doing. "No."

Above the Earth, the Decepticon space bridge arch activated and fired the blue beam at the Earth.

In the Rust Bucket...

June sat in the seat next to her father as he drove out of Alamo NV. She tried calling Jack again.

There was a lot of rumbling, causing June to drop her cellphone, which landed at her feet. A bunch of car alarms went off. Gwen looked out the side window and saw the beam from the Omega lock.

She gasped, as did June and Max when they saw that.

June got a response from Jack, but she was sent to voicemail. "Hey, it's Jack. I can't answer 'cause I'm probably out saving the world right now."

Autobot outpost Omega-1...

Ratchet had detected the beam entering the atmosphere. "Optimus, do you read?" Ratchet begged for a response as a bunch of alarms went off. "An unknown energy spike in Earth's atmosphere is crashing all my systems. "Please tell me this is related to the activation of the Omega lock." He mumbled to himself.

Back on Cybertron...

Miko did realize what the Omega lock was doing, she thought it was good. "If the Omega lock can restore Cybertron, it'll do the same to Earth, right?"

"No." Optimus, being forced to be the bearer of bad news, said: "It will cyber-form your planet in favor of its new matrix destroying all indigenous life in the process."

"Such raw power!" Megatron was impressed with how he would obtain victory. "What should I call my new domain?" He asked. "New Kaon? Or perhaps," He said this next one to anger Optimus. "'Gilded Earth'?"

Optimus turned to face the kids, who were all reacting in their own ways.

"No!" Miko shouted as she pounded on the glass.

"Leave our planet alone." Jack said as he finally could access the Omnitrix. He knew he had one shot at this so he had to make it count.

While all of the decepticons were laughing evilly, none of them noticed Jack transform into Big Chill, who phased through the glass of the pod that had contained him as a human. He turned invisible before flying over to the Omega Lock. He didn't know how to shut it down, so he grasped one of the keys in his clawed hands and pulled it out. The Omega Lock powered down.

With the Omega lock powered down, Big Chill turned visible and smiled while giving Optimus a thumbs up. However, Optimus needed a more permanent solution. He deployed his sword and sliced the head off of one of the Vehicons. He tossed it at Knockout. He then ran to the Star Saber, drew it from the ground.

"Stop him!" Megatron ordered. Several Vehicons ran ot try to stop Optimus. While that happened, Megatron saw a blue humanoid moth fly over to the Autobots. It carried with it the Omega Key. "Raaaaaah!" Megatron roared as he tried to slice Big Chill, but the Dark Star Saber was blocked by Optimus, who sliced off Megatron's maroon and yellow prime arm. Megatron then groaned in pain.

Optimus ran at the Omega Lock. Starscream, Knockout, and Soundwave fired at him in a futile attempt at stopping him. "Ahhhhh!" Optimus yelled as he jumped over Starscream. As he came down, he struck the Omega Lock with the Star Saber, causing it to explode.

The Omega lock was destroyed, stopping this 'con plan for good.

Autobot outpost Omega-1...

Ratchet's scanners had cleared up. "Optimus, can you read?" The medic asked.

A few seconds later, Optimus' voice responded. "Ratchet, please open a space bridge."

Back on Cybertron...

In the aftermath of the explosion, the Autobots stood, covering their human charges. Optimus stepped through a cloud of smoke.

Big Chill, still clutching the Omega Key that he grabbed landed. The Omnitrix picked literally the worst possible time to time out. "No! No! No!' Big Chill shouted. He dropped the Omega Key before he timed out and covered his face. When he was reverted back to being Jack, the human found that he couldn't hold his breath for long and found that the cybertron atmosphere wasn't toxic.[Author's note: I know I changed one of the main details about Cybertron that caused Optimus to think his choice over, but it doesn't make sense. In every other transformers continuity where humans go to Cybertron, Cybertron has a breathable atmosphere.]

Optimus looked at Jack with wide optics. "Impossible."

"Jack, is that a new alien?" Miko asked.

"No, it's me. Guess your guys' homeworld isn't as bad as advertized." Jack said.

A space bridge opened. It was the one that Ratchet sent. Arcee transformed and let Jack climb on her. She drove into the space bridge. The others ran in as well. Smokescreen grabbing the phase shifter and the Omega Key that Jack got out of the Omega lock before Optimus destroyed it.

Starscream got up and panted. Knockout approached him and said: "I guess we should cancel the welcome-home party." Starscream smacked the Decepticon to the side.

He saw that Megatron had been injured. "Attend to our master! He requires medical attention!" When the Autobot space bridge closed, Starscream knew who was responsible for this. "Prime! He will pay for dooming Cybertron to remain a lifeless husk!"

Megatron laughed evilly as he stood up. "They can run, but they can never again run home."

Autobot outpost Omega-1...

The Autobots and Jack exited the space bridge. Ratchet had some questions.

"The children! What happened?" Ratchet asked. When nobody spoke up, he demanded answers. "Somebody say something!"

"Well, Jack tried to shut it down, but Optimus destroyed the Omega lock."

Ratchet couldn't believe what he just heard. "What?! You did-"

"What was necessary." Optimus said. "There was no time for another prolonged battle, not with Earth in imminent danger. Jackson's efforts to remove one of the Omega Keys was commendable, but a prolonged confrontation between him and any of the Decepticons would've resulted in-"

"So after Jack took it apart, you destroyed the only device in any universe capable of restoring our home?" Ratchet asked, not aware that dimension travel was possible. "Optimus, we needed that."

"You weren't there, Doc." Smokescreen said. "And it's not your place to second-guess a battlefield decision." He pointed accusingly at Ratchet.

"It most certainly is! There had to be another way!"

"I-It wasn't that simple, Ratchet." Jack said.

Raf defended Optimus. "Megatron was using the Omega lock to attack the Earth."

"Optimus saved our planet." Miko added.

Ratchet was furious, and for no good reason. It was all his fault. "What about our planet?! All of our struggles and Energon spilled and countless sacrifices for nothing?!" Ratchet burst out.

"Right decision or wrong, what's done is done." Arcee said. And we have another problem here on this world. The Cons just changed the rules when they put Miko and Raf into play."

A beeping was heard. "Prime!" Fowler shouted over the communicator. "The Pentagon's preparing to go Defcon 1. I need to know what we're dealing with!"

"To what do you refer, Agent Fowler?" Asked Optimus.

"Maybe you should step outside and see for yourselves."

Optimus knew this was bad. "Ratchet, watch the children."

Soon...

The Autobots and Heatblast stood on the large cargo elevator as it went up. When they got to the top, they saw the a massive, spiked cybertronian fortress that dwarfed anything in the area.

For the most part, the Autobots were speechless.

"Uh, since when do we have neighbors?" Heatblast asked.

"We don't." Bulkhead said.

A helicopter landed near the Pyronite. Fowler got out and stood a minimum of five feet away from the Pyronite.

"So if not new neighbors, then what is it?"

"Megatron has managed to accomplish the first phase of his cyber-forming of Earth, the construction of his fortress." Optimus explained.

"In Alamo, nevada? I don't get it." Fowler said. "I've already had the town evacuated. So why here?"

Bumblebee buzzed and pointed to the fortress.

"You have gotta be kidding me." Heatblast said.

The Nemesis descended from above the clouds.

"Because the Decepticons have discovered the location of our base."

With the 'cons...

Megatron stood atop the flight deck of the Nemesis. Behind him, stood two rows of forty vehicon jets.

"Our opportunity to revive Cybertron has been lost due to the treachery of Optimus Prime!" Megatron proclaimed. "But from our fortress of New Kaon, we will instead seize control of this world!" Channeling his inner Corey Burton and proclaimed: "Decepticons, transform and rise up!" He proclaimed.

Starscream, itching for a fight, eagerly said: "I thought he'd never ask!" He and the other eighty or so decepticon flyers transformed and took off. When they saw the Autobots, they began firing. "Come, my armada! Attack! Attack! Attack!"

The Autobots saw Starscream and about a dozen other flyers heading towards them. They jumped to the side to get out of the way.

Heatblast took aim at one of the flyers and shot a stream of flame at it, burning its exhaust vents, causing it to overheat and crash.

The Autobots took aim at the flyers, taking down as many as they could.

Optimus heard the sound of fluttering wings. He turned to see a whole swarm of insecticons flying at the base.

Several of the insecticons landed and transformed and began fighting the Autobots. Optimus and Bulkhead were having the best luck, seeing as those two and the bug bots were about the same size. Bumblebee and Smokescreen were having a little trouble, due to them being the second smallest. Heatblast and Arcee were struggling the most, due to their small size, Heatblast only being able to beat the bot beetles by avoiding their attacks.

Bumblebee climbed onto one of the insecticons and blasted the nape of its insect mode. He then shot the wings of two more that tried to land on the plateau.

Bulkhead smashed in the face of one of the insecticons, he then kicked it, sending it falling to the desert below.

Smokescreen kicked the head off of one of the insecticons. He then blasted two more that tried to climb up.

Heatblast and Arcee worked as a team. While Heatblast went low and melted the lower legs of the Decepticons, causing them great pain, they were distracted, which allowed Arcee to go in and deliver the killing blows.

Optimus slice insecticon after insecticon, but there were still more coming. He spun around and swung the Star Saber, unleashing a massive blast that destroyed a second wave of insecticons.

When the flyers came back for a second pass, Optimus knew that they were fighting a loosing battle.

"Autobots, into the base!" Optimus ordered. Not needing to be told twice, the Autobots and the Pyronite got on the elevator as soon as it opened.

Bulkhead saw that Fowler got back in the helicopter. "Fowler, what are you doing?"

Fowler started up his helicopter's engine. "My job, two-ton." Fowler took off and fired his 'copter's machine gun at Starscream, but was unable to hit the 'con SIC, or the other flyers.

Back inside...

"What's happening?" Raf asked as Heatblast and the 'bots came into the main room of the base.

"What is going on out there?"

"The Decepticons have invaded Alamo." Optimus said as he looked at the rocky ceiling of the base.

"And Fowler seems to think he can hold them off."

"Gotta say." Heatblast said as he turned back to Jack, but there was no red flash, and the Omnitrix didn't have red light signaling that it was in recharge mode, on any light for that matter. "He's either very brave, or very stupid."

Outside...

Fowler was being pursued by a trio of vehicon jets. "Special Agent Fowler to air-defense command. I need immediate combat support." A blast hit his helicopter, knocking the door off of it. He gasped at the sudden damage. He stopped and hovered as an Insecticon flew towards him. "Come on, air-defense command." Fowler said to himself. Suddenly, three blue laser blasts hit the three insecticons that were near Fowler. "I'll be triple-dipped." Fowler looked up and saw the Jackhammer, Wheeljack's ship flew into view. The Jackhammer took out the flyers that were pursuing Fowler.

Back inside...

"Prime, reinforcements just arrived." Fowler said.

Optimus thought Fowler meant human reinforcements. "Agent Fowler, your military cannot prevail against the" Optimus was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"You didn't think I was gonna let team Prime have all the fun, did you?" Wheeljack said over the coms.

Bulkhead laughed when he heard the voice of his best friend, besides Miko. "It's Jackie!"

"Wheeljack? But how did you-" Ratchet was interrupted when Wheeljack's face appeared on the screen.

"I picked up a strange energy surge." He explained. "Hope you don't mind the company."

"No. It's just that after everything well-" Ratchet thought back to the revenge stunt he pulled with Miko, as well as his personal experience with the Wrecker.

"We're still on the same team, Doc. Always will be." Before Wheeljack disconnected, he had one more thing to say. "And Miko, remember that Element X we swiped from Sixsix and Vulkanus?"

"Yeah? What about it."

"Found a way to make it go boom without taking the whole system with it."

Wheeljack disconnected from the chat. Second later, a large explosion was heard that shook the very foundation of the base.

Despite the backup from Wheeljack, Optimus knew that they had to evacuate.

"Ratchet, prepare to bridge everyone out of here."

"We're abandoning the base?" Ratchet was unable to believe what he was hearing.

"The base is lost." Optimus explained. "Wheeljack and Agent Fowler can only buy us time to escape. Bumblebee, Rafael, you will depart first.

Bumblebee buzzed in sad agreement. "You're splitting us up?" Raf asked.

"Shouldn't we stick together?" Jack asked, knowing that as a team they were stronger.

"All for one and one for all?" Asked Miko.

"We must disperse to avoid capture until we can regroup and launch a counterattack." Optimus stated his reasoning for this move. "Survival is our only priority now."

Outside...

Fowler's helicopter was taking a lot of damage. He was going down, and pursued by an Insecticon. Fowler saw that there was blaster fire coming from a cloud of black smoke. He rose up above the smoke and let the 'con flyer ran into the insecticon that was pursuing him.

The day I'm outflow by a bunch of toasters is the day I-" Fowler stopped what he was saying when he saw the shadow of the Nemesis loom over his tiny helicopter.

Megatron stood on the front tip of the warship.

Back inside...

Bumblebee drove into the bridge and out of the base with Raf inside.

"We haven't much time." Optimus said.

Bulkhead, who had Miko inside his vehicle mode pulled up to the bridge as Ratchet imputed new set of coordinates. Arcee, who had Jack atop her motorcycle mode, pulled up beside Bulkhead. Miko and Jack looked at each other with sad eyes. The Japanese girl didn't get a chance to wave goodbye before Bulkhead drove off.

A new location was selected and Arcee drove through the bridge.

Outside the base...

As the battle was going on, the Rust Bucket drove towards the base.

"No!" Max couldn't believe what was going on.

A vehicon started firing at the Rust Bucket. Max hit the brakes. He pressed a button on the dashboard that made one of the satellite dishes turn to face the vehicon. A second later, it unleashed a blue blast that shot the 'con out of the air.

"No bucket of bolts is gonna be the end of me." Max said as he hit the gas. "Change of plans. We're going to get some real help."

Fowler's helicopter was shot down and crashed on the side of the road.

"June, help me get him in. Gwen, get ready to drive." Max said.

Max and June got out of the Rust Bucket and ran over the helicopter. Fowler had managed to get himself out.

"Max? June? What're you doing here?" Fowler asked

"I'd ask you the same question, but now's not the time, get in!" Max pointed to the Rust Bucket.

"Don't need to tell me twice." Fowler got in the souped up RV. Gwen did what she was told and put the petal to the metal and drove off once her aunt and grandpa were in.

Up above them, Wheeljack pursued a couple of flyers, unaware that Starscream was following him.

"You're scrap." Starscream said as he took aim. He fired two missiles, both of which hit.

Wheeljack tried to avoid the missiles, but they were homing missiles. They eventually hit the Jackhammer, knocking it out of the sky.

"And that's how you wreck a Wrecker." Starscream laughed.

Back in the base...

Smokescreen saluted Optimus before transforming and driving into the bridge.

Optimus stood in front of the space bridge arch.

"What about you?" Ratchet asked.

Optimus' reply came: "I will ensure that the Decepticons cannot follow."

For all Ratchet knew, this would be the end. "I never imagined it would end like this." Ratchet ran through the bridge.

"Neither did I, old friend." Optimus said with a slight frown on his face.

Optimus turned to the space/ground bridge controls. He clenched his fist. He knew what had to be done.

Outside...

The Nemesis began to deploy a single large blaster that it had pointed at the base. It began to power up.

In the Rust Bucket...

As Max drove away from the base, June saw what was going on by looking out of the Rust Bucket's rear window. She was horrified to say the least.

Right as the 'cons were about to fire, Optimus raised the Star Saber over his head. It glowed blue. Right when the 'cons fired, Optimus destroyed the ground bridge controls. Autobot outpost omega-1 was no more.

"No." June was scared of the thought that Jack might've been in the base when it blew.

Megatron and Starscream transformed and flew into the flaming ruins of the base. They transformed again and landed on the Autobot logo that was on the floor of the main room.

"This is the place, all right." Starscream said.

"This was the place." Megatron corrected.

"United we stand, divided they fall."

Less than thirty yards from them lay the broken and mangled body of Optimus Prime. Somehow, the poor SOB was still alive.

To be continued...


	40. Darkmount, NV

Near what was once Alamo Nevada...

In the hours following the Autobot base's destruction, things have looked pretty Bleak, if you're not one of the Decepticons.

Currently, the 'cons were sifting through the flaming rubble for anything of value. Insecticons were carrying off larger chunks while Vehicons looked through the debris.

Megatron stood atop a pile of burnt base. "Leave no stone unturned!" He commanded his underlings.

"Master," Megatron turned to see Starscream who was followed by two Vehicon flyers. "Look who we found." The fliers were dragging the unconscious body of Wheeljack. "Pulled from the Wreckage of his ship, Wheeljack."

Megatron saw that Wheeljack was still moving. "So, it seems one survived. Take him to the Citadel for further questioning, back to Darkmount." Megatron turned to face his fortress. The massive Cybertronian spire located a within driving distance of the former Autobot base.

"This is the dawn of a new age! The Reign of Megatron!"

"You do have a way with words Starscream." Megatron, cautious of Starscream's enthusiasm, said. He turned to the excavation crews. "Make haste and unearth the Autobot corpses!"

A flash of blue light was seen. "I wouldn't recommend that Megatronus."

"Who said that?"

"I did." Paradox appeared on a still standing section of catwalk.

"You dare to speak to me directly insect?" Megatron turned to face the time walker.

"To call me an insect would be a compliment to your Insecticons Megatronus, or is it Megatron?" Paradox got the title Megatron used confused. "But regardless of what you call yourself, looking for the bodies of the Autobots here would be a fruitless gesture, yes, you may find their Iacon relics, but the Autobots themselves are gone."

"What?! We picked up no ground bridges activating."

"The Autobots, as well as their human friends are now somewhere else on this planet, but as to where I cannot and will not tell you."

"And why tell us this Time Walker?"

"I came to issue a warning to you Decepticons. Surrender or be destroyed by Prime."

Starscream laughed when he heard that threat. "Optimus can't stop us by himself."

Paradox smirked. "I never said Optimus. All I said was Prime, a Prime made on Earth, one that protects freedom from tyranny."

"Still sounds like Optimus." Starscream thought that this organic was full of it.

"But it's not Optimus. But as to his name, that is a story for another day." Paradox then walked behind a pile of rubble and disappeared.

Megatron was about to look for the time traveler, but one of the Vehicons shouted: "Lord Megatron, we found something!"

"Bring it to me!" He commanded.

A group of four Vehicons were carrying the stasis pod that Airachnid was imprisoned in, although it had been painted black and green in a way that matched the Omnitrix.

Another two Vehicons brought over the Forge of Solus Prime which had a note on it.

"What's this?" Starscream removed the note. He read it out loud. "Dibs -JT. So Arcee's pet thinks the law of 'dibs' applies to us?"

"The forge of Solus Prime?!" Megatron had thought that his underlings brought the remains of an Autobot. "How is it that you can materialize this, yet you haven't recovered the charred remains of a single Autobot?!"

"Answer you lord and master! Where are their bodies?!" Starscream just realized something, but he didn't want to speak it, with the risk of angering Megatron further.

Meanwhile...

In the caverns under the base, Smokescreen exited the wall by using the phase shifter. He dragged Optimus' nearly dead body and laid him against the wall of the cave.

"You're hurt, but you probably feel way worse than you feel." Smokescreen said. He saw that Optimus was trying to get up. "No, don't move, or talk, just power down until you get your strength back."

Later, back up topside...

"The Autobots clearly used their ground bridge to escape their base before it was destroyed. They could be anywhere." Megatron said as he and Starscream walked away from the smouldering rubble.

"We must initiate global surveillance my lord. I will send search and destroy teams to every sector of this planet."

"Soundwave." Megatron said through his comm link. "Monitor all earth based transmissions for Autobot communication, to each other, and with their human counterparts."

"Master, if the Time Walker was right about the Autobots, was he right about this new Prime?"

"Highly unlikely." Megatron said. He saw something in the distance. It was a bunch of human military vehicles.

"Well isn't that cute?" Starscream asked. "The humans think they can stop us." Starscream turned to his superior and asked: "Shall I deploy the armada?"

"That won't be necessary Starscream, for we now have the ability to engage the enemy with new found might." Megatron motioned to his fortress of Darkmount, which had four fusion cannons.

One of the cannons lowered itself to aim at the approaching human military. It began to charge up, a greenish yellow vortex forming around the end of its barrel. It then fired its beam at the humans.

The helicopters managed to avoid the beam, but they were very, very far from safe. When the beam hit the ground, it lifted some of the tanks off the ground and brought them, along with a large portion of the military hardware that was present over to a single point, where it piled up. Seconds later, it exploded, killing all the humans that were caught in the blast.

Later...

From his throne in Darkmount, Megatron was issuing a threat to someone.

"A new power dominates your world. Any further attempts to attack me will be met with greater force. Your leaders should be advised to know that my fusion cannons possess enough firepower to decimate any densely populated area of my choosing."

Fowler's office...

While he sat at his desk, special agent William Fowler was listening to Megatron's speech over the phone.

"I would in all likelihood set my sights on your nation's capital, for starters."

Fowler had heard enough. "Point taken. Now what do you want from us?"

"Nothing, Agent Fowler." Megatron said. "The Decepticons mean no harm. To humanity."

Back at Darkmount...

"We merely desire a place to call home." Megatron said with full sincerity.

"No offence Megatron, but I'm having a tough time swallowing all this. Especially since you seem so bent on plastering humankind under molten steel." The sound of Fowler pounding on his desk could be heard.

"Agent Fowler. I admit that war brings out the worst in me, but the conflict with the Autobots is now over. And our quarrel has never been with your kind as a whole. But now that the one true enemy of the Decepticons is no more," While Starscream smiled upon hearing the way Megatron spoke, Megatron himself seemed to look guilty. "my only wish is to coexist on this planet with the human race, peacefully." After a few seconds of silence between the two. "Together agent Fowler, I believe that you and I can make that dream a reality."

Megatron hung up and stood up from his throne. He walked to the edge of the platform that his throne was on.

Starscream applauded Megatron. "You too have a way with words master." Starscream said. "I almost believed you myself."

"Heh heh heh. Earth is our planet now Starscream." Megatron said as he looked at the brewing storm. "And we shall finish what we started. Humankind has no idea what lies ahead for them." My thoughts exactly Megatron, my thoughts exactly.

UNIT:E hanger(AKA, future Autobot Base)...

"Yes general Bryce, Special Containment protocol G-1000 has been executed as planned. The evacuation of Alamo Nevada was a complete success. As far as it's citizens or the media are concerned, the threat was a meteor shower and the town is to be quarantined until the resulting radiation levels can be dissipated. The Plumbers, they're not buying it. Sir, any retaliation would be too risky. All I need is more time. Yes, I understand." Fowler hung up the phone and sat back down at his desk. "So, about your pet project?" Fowler faced two men, one was Max Tennyson, the other was a much younger man, in his twenties who had cool black hair.

"Well Fowler, you know that the Plumbers would normally handle this, right?" Max said.

Fowler sighed. "Yes, wait, what do you mean by normally?"

The other man spoke. "The Earth has not had direct contact with extraterrestrial beings. Only a few instances, most being related to Jack Tennyson and the Omnitrix."

"Yeah, so what? The 'cons are breathing down our necks! How is that not direct contact?!"

"Megatron has not made himself known to the world. If he were to broadcast on all communication channels, that would be direct contact."

"What Arthur is getting at is that the Plumbers have a contingency for a circumstance like this."

"Contingency? Explain. And also explain how you know Jack is Max's grandkid."

"Centuries ago on Galvan Prime, a group was founded by the Galvan that created technology that was used to defend their homeworld. They called themselves the Brotherhood of Steel. As Galvan influence spread, they infiltrated the governments of worlds that were not as advanced and created superweapons that would defend against hostile alien invasion."

"And let me guess? The Earth has one?"

"Yes," Max said. "Underneath the Pentagon lies something big. A robot created by the Brotherhood to fight off invaders."

"Hold up. That's Liberty Prime you're talking about. He's built to fight China."

"That's what we told your predecessors so we could build him. Do you really think the US government would've given us the resources to build it if we told them it was to fight off aliens?" Arthur replied.

"But last I checked, Liberty Prime couldn't move, let alone fight. So how're we supposed to use him?"

"We don't have the necessary central processor to get his AI working, and his reactors won't do well over extended combat."

"Well what's taken you so long? You had thirty years to get the big guy moving."

"Yeah, that's the problem. Prime's designer, Azmuth, didn't give us the full plans that we needed. And when he went missing, liberty prime has been left to metaphorically rust in the pentagon's basement." Arthur said. "But even if we found Azmuth, I doubt he'll help us, seeing as he's changed since he drew up the plans for LP all those years ago."

"Okay then." Fowler said. "But what about Jack? How do you know he has that watch?"

"But as to how I know that Jack is related to Max, well one of our members, one known only as The Storyteller encountered Jack a week ago."

There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Agent Fowler said while he rubbed his forehead.

June and Gwen came in, each one holding a clipboard.

"Agent Fowler, those medical supplies still haven't arrived. We have wounded men who ne-"

"I am doing the best that I can nurse Tennyson." Fowler said sternly. "Been busy juggling a bunch of nuke happy generals who don't seem to care if they blow nevada sky high, and a decepticon warlord that wants to make nice, now that the Autobots are in the scrapyard." He saw that June and Gwen had concerned looks on their faces. "Megatron's opinion, not mine. He's been feeding me a load of horse crap, trying to crush our spirit. Thank god your dad and his friends in this Brotherhood of Steel say they're working on a way to help."

June turned to see her dad and Arthur sitting along the wall.

"Have you heard from someone? Anyone?" June wanted, no, needed to make sure that her son was okay.

Arthur stood up. "Listen, no contact only tells us that the main comm link went down when the base was pounded into pancake batter."

"But if I could just call Jack..."

"Juniper," Max said. He sat his daughter down in the chair next to him. He wrapped one of his arms over June's shoulder. "you know it's too risky, so do the 'bots. The 'cons spymaster can trace any cell phone signal."

Fighting back the urge to whimper, June said: "Then take me home. If Jack can't call, that's where he'll look for me."

"June, Alamo's under complete 'con lockdown. Nobody's getting back in there. The only way we can fix this mess is if we can somehow make contact with the others in away that can't be tracked by the 'cons..." Arthur had an idea. "I got it!"

"Got what?" Gwen asked.

"What's the one way Megatron hasn't used to locate Jack?"

Gwen thought this over for a second, but then it hit her like a ton of bricks. "The Omnitrix."

"Bingo. We find the Omnitrix, we find Jack, and if we find Jack..."

"Then we find Arcee." June reasoned.

"And once we find Arcee, we're one step closer to getting us all back together."

"But what about the others?" Max asked.

"Don't know. But I'm sure they're out there, keeping a low profile, they gotta be."

Somewhere in the midwest...

A couple of vehicon flyers were looking for vehicles that matched the alt modes of the Autobots.

"Scanning. Scanning." One of the flyers said. It eventually found an Urbana 500 that looked like Bumblebee, but it was the wrong color, as in black with yellow stripes. "Negative. No Autobot recognition." The flyer flew off.

A black and yellow Urbana 500 pulled off to the side of the road and drove behind a hill. Its doors opened and out stepped Raf.

"Clear." The young boy said. The doors closed and the car transformed into Bumblebee, now sporting a reversed color scheme.[Author's note: In the original episode, Bumblebee just pulls off the road and transformed. In fact, in the following shots after that scene, you can still see cars driving by. That makes me laugh every time I see it]

Bumblebee buzzed angrily as he saw the Vehicon that tried to find him fly away.

"You're right, that was too close." Raf said. "But your new paint job did the trick."

Bumblebee tapped the side of his helmet and bleep, trying to contact someone.

"The comms uplink is still down." Raf explained. "Bee, I realize that Optimus sent us all to different locations to make us harder to find, but if we don't know where anyone else went, how're we going to find it."

Bumblebee buzzed again, and Raf once again responded. "Right. Just keep heading towards Alamo. Towards Megatron's giant fortress."

With Bulkhead and Miko...

Miko sighed as she looked out the window of her BFF's alt mode. "I never knew there were so many rockies." She sighed. She got out her phone. When she pressed some of the buttons, Bulkhead heard the noise that they made. He slammed on the brakes.

"Miko!" Bulkhead shouted.

"Woah!" She was thrown back a bit.

"No cell phone! You know the rules!"

"Dude, I wasn't calling anyone. I was playing a videogame that I already downloaded."

Bulkhead realized that he had overreacted. "Sorry, I'm a little on edge."

As Bulkhead continued down the mountain road, Miko rubbed her neck. She then asked: "Where're we headin' anyway Bulk? You got some sorta plan?"

"We're following standard Wrecker protocol."

"Which is..."

"An emergency plan we followed during the war, incase any wrecker got stranded or separated from the unit. We'd always roundevue at the exact same set of coordinates. If Jackie's still alive, he'll be there."

Darkmount...

Wheeljack was in much the same position Cliffjumper was in about eight months ago. He was chained up after he had been tortured.

"Don't stop now. I was just beginning to enjoy myself." Wheeljack mocked.

Starscream hissed when he heard that. "Believe me Wheeljack. There is more where that came from. And you will tell me the location of your compatriots" Starscream used a four pronged torture tool to both scratch Wheeljack's armor, as well as deliver an electric shock. "no matter what it takes, or however long."

"Like I told yah, they weren't expecting me. They never bothered to fill me in. So go ahead. Knock yourself out."

In Megatron's throne 'room'...

Knockout approached Megatron. He bowed before saying: "How may I serve you lord Megatron?"

"Assemble a team and disembark for Cybertron immediately." Megatron ordered. "While hunting Autobots remains paramount, we must not squander the opportunity to recover any Iacon relics left behind in the chaos. For all we know, Optimus Prime is out there, planning to do the same." Megatron looked out into the distance. After a few seconds, he turned his attention back to Megatron. "But before you do that, make sure that your patient is recovering."

With Optimus and Smokescreen...

Optimus groaned. This got Smokescreen's attention.

"It's okay Optimus. You're with me, Smokescreen."

"How... did I... get here?" Optimus weakly asked.

"When we were evacuating base, just as the 'cons were about to open fire," Smokescreen began. "it was my turn to bridge away. But I couldn't do it, I couldn't let you face Megatron's army alone, so I snuck back. But that's when the blast hit and the whole joint came tumbling down. But I managed to pull you from the Wreckage before the 'cons drove in, using the phase shifter, which I managed to snag in all the confusion back on Cybertron, along with this." He showed Optimus the Omega key that Jack managed to save. "Look, I'm sorry I defied your orders." Optimus didn't respond. "Look we're safe here, but we're down so deep no one can pick up our signals. I'll have to scout above ground if we're going to have any hope of finding Ratchet."

Smokescreen stood up, but what the Autobot leader said next made him stop in his tracks. "No. No hope."

Smokescreen couldn't believe that Optimus was saying that it was hopeless. He asked: "What'd ya mean? The doc's the only one who can get you patched up."

Optimus groaned weakly.

"Optimus." Smokescreen bent down to see what was wrong with Optimus, or at least to the best of his abilities.

With Jack and Arcee...

Arcee drove into the loading yard of what appeared to be some kinda factory. She drove behind one of the building.

Jack removed his helmet before asking: "What if Alamo wasn't evacuated in time?" Jack got off of Arcee's alt mode. "She could've been hurt, or taken by the 'cons."

"Jack." Arcee tried to reassure her partner that his mom was most likely alright.

"And even if she did get out, she's gotta be worried out of her mind, not knowing where I am."

Arcee transformed. She kneeled down next to Jack. "Jack, calm down." Arcee said. "Your mom's a tough woman. We'll get back to Alamo, find a way to reach your mother, and the rest of the team." Arcee stood up and looked around. She heard something. She turned her head to see a helicopter in the distance. She turned to Jack and said: "Stay here, could be a 'con on our tail."

Arcee jumped over a wall and transformed. She drove towards the helicopter.

Jack looked at his phone to see that he had a voicemail from his mom. "Sorry mom." Jack said. "I'd call if I could."

Jack got a text message from somebody. Apparently, he didn't get the memo about not answering anything. Before he looked at the text, he saw that the message was from somebody that he didn't know, but they used the Omnitrix symbol as their picture.

"What the?" Asked a confused Jack. Jack opened the text to find that it was a bunch of gibberish. But it wasn't jiberish. It was code.

Before Jack could hit delete on the text, his phone started to violently shake, causing Jack to lose his grip on it. He dropped his phone, but it didn't shatter. It floated two inches above the ground then gently came down. From the cellphone's camera lense, a hologram of an alien that Jack met recently was displayed.

"Azmuth?"

Meanwhile, on the Nemesis...

Soundwave had just picked up a signal coming from Nebraska. Starscream approached the mute 'con, who showed him that the signal was coming from Jack's location.

"Master we have located Arcee's pet."

"Send in the troops. And Soundwave, I want a live feed." Megatron said over the comm link.

Soundwave deployed Laserbeak, who had orders to record video footage.

Meanwhile, at the Sierra Army Depot...

June got a text message from someone using the Omnitrix symbol as their ID.

She read the message: "With Arcee, safe. Love you." She almost cried after she read this. "Agent Fowler! Jack's alive!"

Meanwhile, back with Jack...

"Hello Jackson." Said the hologram. "You may or not be aware of this, but the Omnitrix is currently not working."

"What?! Is it gonna blow up?" Jack didn't want a repeat of the incident that lead to Jack meeting Azmuth.

"The Omnitrix's self-destruct sequence hasn't been re-initiated."

"Okay, that's a relief. Wait if that's not the problem, then what's the problem?"

"Try to transform into one of your alternate forms."

Jack pressed the button on the Omnitrix and found that it wouldn't work. All he heard was metal hitting metal that made a clicking noise. "So I'm powerless?"

"Yes, for the time being. And I'm sorry I didn't warn you sooner."

"Why?"

"Turn to face the south east, then look up at a forty five degree angle."

Jack did as the Omnitrix's creator said and saw a Vehicon jet approaching him. "Scrap! How'd they find me?"

"That's my fault Jack. I was unaware that the Decepticons were looking for you. But allow me to provide some assistance."

In a flash of green light, a Galvanic Mechamorph appeared next to Jack. This one looked just like Upgrade, only it was black and green instead of black with a white chest.

"Jack, seek shelter." The Mechamorph commanded. It fired a beam of green energy at the decepticon jet, knocking it out of the sky, making it transform into its robot mode. Jack grabbed his phone before running to hide behind a rock.

The Mechamorph grabbed the Vehicon's ankle and pulled on it, making it crash into the ground.

Arcee meanwhile was still following that Helicopter. She transformed and got behind a rock. She took aim at the 'copter and was about to take the shot, but she noticed that it was light orange and white, which didn't match any decepticons that she knew.

Arcee sighed. "Civilian." She then heard blaster fire coming from where she left Jack. She looked to see red laser bolts as well green beams and knew what was going on, or thought she knew.

She transformed and drove back to Jack's location as fast as she could.

Jack had run behind a pile of gravel. Jack head the sound of another Vehicon approaching. The mechamorph that Azmuth sent could handle one, but it might get overwhelmed if more came.

"I am so toast." Jack panted. "You picked to wrong day to quit on me Omnitrix." Jack ran over to the fence that was by the gravel pile. He climbed up it. Before he got over, he looked to see the two Vehicons that were flying at him. Several green beams were fired at them but they missed. The Vehicons fired at Jack, the first one missing, while the second one hit the fence near Jack, tossing him off of it. He landed on the ground face first.

The 'con fliers too several passes at Jack, but didn't shoot directly at him. They were aiming at the transmission tower that Jack had landed beside. They shot two of the supports, causing it to fall. Jack ran to the left to avoid being crushed by it.

He hid behind the booth that was at the gate.

Jack looked up and saw Laserbeak. "Smile Jack. You're on Decepticon TV

Back on the Nemesis...

Starscream and Soundwave were looking over the video footage of Jack.

"Master, we have a visual." Starscream said.

Megatron walked over to see Jack cowering in fear.

Back with Jack...

Having seen Laserbeak, Jack looked for a place to hide. He ran over to a bunch of parked semi truck trailers and hid under one.

That didn't do him much good, seeing as the 'cons fired at the trailer that he had hid himself under. They destroyed the trailer, causing it to fly over Jack and crash about ten yards from him. When the trailer crash, it threw up a ton of dust, which caused Jack to cough.

As the third Vehicon flew at Jack and fired. Arcee rushed over, transformed, and grabbed him mid front flip. When she landed, she slid on the asphalt until she bumped into the destroyed trailer. She set Jack on the ground and deployed her blasters and fired at the passing jets.

Back on the Nemesis...

Megatron and the others were watching the footage sent to them by Laserbeak. "How long does it take to exterminate a lone Autobot and her human pet?" Megatron demanded answers.

"Well in my experience-"

"Not a riddle Starscream."

"Sorry."

Back with Arcee and Jack...

Arcee looked over her shoulder and saw a gas station. "Over there." She transformed. Jack got on her alt mode before Arcee sped off to the gas station.

Jack and Arcee hid behind one of the fuel pumps.

"Not the best cover." Jack said nervously.

"We're not here to hide." Arcee had a grin on her face.

"The two remaining Vehicons flew over to the gas station and transformed. They walked over to the gas station, which was shorter than they were. They bent down and pointed their blasters at whatever was underneath.

They saw Jack holding two of the nozzles in his hands. "Hey guys, unleaded or diesel?" He was spraying the gas on the ground, which normally was a bad idea, but right now, yeah, it's still a bad idea, but slightly less so. Jack then dropped the hoses and ran over to an abandoned car. The Vehicons took aim at him.

Arcee got out from behind the car and took aim, firing a single blast at the puddle of gasoline, igniting it, which caused the whole station to explode.

The two vehicons and Laserbeak were caught in the blast.

Arcee shielded her partner from the blast, which reached to the car that the two of them hid behind.

"Let's roll before they send reinforcements." Arcee transformed into her vehicle mode. Jack got on and they drove off.

As they started driving, Arcee and Jack started to glow green.

"What's happening?" Arcee asked. She hit the brakes. Right before she could transform, she and Jack were teleported away.

Cybertron...

Knockout was leading a team of Decepticons that were sifting through the wreckage of the Omega lock.

"Come on fella, put your backs into it!" Knockout ordered when he saw that his subordinates weren't working fast enough.

Knockout walked over and found one of the items that the Autobots left behind. "The Apex Armor. Our illustrious leader will be pleased. Now then, any sign of that phase shifter? I really like that thing."

"Sir, look!" One of the vehicons pointed to something in the distance.

"By the Allspark." Knockout couldn't believe what he was seeing.

On the Nemesis...

Soundwave was hard at work trying to repair Laserbeak.

"Well? Did any of the surveillance data survive?" Megatron asked. He got no reply.

Starscream sighed. "A shame. We might've at least learned the direction in which Arcee and the human fled."

"Clearly we need to improve our methods of hunting Autobots. As well as build upon the tactical advantage that we've managed to secure."

"But there is also the problem of Arcee's human pet. His Omnitrix may prove to be the tactical advantage for the Autobots." Starscream added.

"That is of no concern. I have made. arrangements to have him hunted down by a professional."

"What? A bounty hunter? Do you not remember the reports that came from Airachnid before she deserted us? The boy could defeat any hunter Vilgax sent at him."

"That is why I have arranged for something much stronger than as soldier of fortune to pursue him."

"And who would that-" Starscream was interrupted by Knockout, who called in from Cybertron.

"Lord Megatron, I am ready to return to Darkmount, and I'm certain you'll want to see what I've uncovered."

Megatron was intrigued. "Soundwave, open a space bridge portal."

The mute 'con obeyed his master. A space bridge opened in the room that the three of them were in.

Knockout walked out of it.

"I find myself in urgent need of good news." Megatron was just about ready to crush someone's skull in. "So please Knockout, tell me that you found something useful."

"Somethings, my liege," Knockout moved away from the portal. "and, someone."

Footsteps were heard as something walked towards the opening. Starscream saw the outline of someone that he knew, and not in a good way.

A Decepticon that was just a bit shorter than Megatron walked out of the space bridge, and into the Nemesis. Starscream recognized him. This new 'con had a normal right arm, but his left was one big blaster.

"He lives?!" Starscream was horrified when he saw the cyclopic Decepticon.

"Shockwave." Megatron was pleased. He chuckled evilly. "Just the tactical advantage I need."

To be continued...


	41. Scattered

Where we left off...

The cycloptic decepticon scientist bowed. "Lord Megatron."

"Shockwave, this is quite an unexpected turn." Megatron looked over to Starscream with a stare of anger. "I thought you'd perished on Cybertron."

"Y-y-yes yes, as did we all."

"Reports of my demise, premature." Shockwave remembered what happened almost five earth years ago. "A pair of Autobots infiltrated my facility on Cybertron, sabotaging my space bridge. I gave chase, but failed to accurately calculate the outcome. I awoke in the rubble, blinded. It soon became clear that I was marooned on our dead planet, with no means of communication. In time, I repaired my wounds, and resumed my experiments. The solitude enabled me to make tremendous advances in my research, until one day, my instruments detected a massive surge of unidentifiable energy. I traveled to investigate its origin, at the edge of the Sea of Rust, where I encountered your salvage team, and the smoldering wreckage of the Omega lock. But this was not the search party I had anticipated so long ago. Leaving one unanswered question, Lord Megatron."

"And that would be?"

Megatron and Shockwave turned to face Starscream. "Why was I left for scrap? Abandoned. Why?" He asked, his monotone almost getting to the point of anger.

Starscream looked terrified. He had to think of a reason why that Shockwave would interpret as the truth. "The the the explosion, it it collapsed the power-core chamber." Starscream stuttered. "The last thing anyone witnessed was you charging into the space-bridge portal. No one saw you come back out!" Starscream winced after he finished giving his explanation.

"I find your reply to be logical."

Megatron and Shockwave turned and headed to the exit of the room.

Starscream sighed before saying: "But you will be pleased to know that I avenged your seeming demise by personally terminating the Autobot Cliffjumper." Starscream boasted.

Knockout was tired of Starscream bringing that up, as we all are. "Careful, Starscream. You may dislocate a landing gear patting yourself on the back." He rolled his optics.

Ignoring that comment, Starscream continued. "As Megatron's First Lieutenant, allow me to welcome you back to the winning team."

"And allow me to clarify the new chain of command." Megatron turned to face his subordinates. "While Starscream will retain authority over military operations, Shockwave will be my first lieutenant in charge of all scientific endeavors."

"So you are saying that we shall each report directly to you?"

"Close, each of you shall report directly to myself, and to our temporary ally, Vilgax."

"Vilgax?!" Starscream started started to panic. "Have you gone mad?"

A door opened and out walked the twenty five foot tall alien dictator. "Correct, Starscream, isn't it?"

"Lord Megatron, why do you associate yourself with this organic."

"Silence!" Vilgax commanded. The decepticons listened to his order. "Megatron has merely acquired my help in defeating Jack Tennyson, the human whelp who has the Omnitrix."

"The Omnitrix exist?"

"Surely one such as you Shockwave would know of it's creation. Oh wait, you were stranded on a dead world and didn't bother to create a means of detecting space bridges."

"Explain your insults Vilgax."

"You may be one of the most logical beings in the galaxy, but you are ignorant to your surroundings. The decepticons might've won if your were detecting space bridges, as opposed to various unrelated energies."

"I would have found nothing."

Vilgax hated explaining himself. "What you would've detected would've been Tennyson and the Autobot Arcee, arriving on your dead world to find Vector Sigma."

"What? How-" Starscream was interrupted by his organic superior.

"Do I know of this defeat your forces suffered? I was able to access all the files your ship had in regards to recent history. And I must say, for the most part, it is unimpressive."

"So, since you're working with us, what do you want out of this? The Omnitrix?"

Vilgax hissed before saying. "Affirmative." He then turned to Shockwave. "Is that request 'logical'?"

"Completely so, sir."

Galvan Prime...

Jack and Arcee appeared in Azmuth's lab. Arcee transformed and crouched down.

"Okay, what just happened?"

Azmuth approached the Autobot. "My apologies Arcee, I merely intended on bringing Jack to Galvan Prime so that I could repair the Omnitrix. The fact that you were brought here as well was a mistake, albeit not an unpleasant one."

"Well, we're safe. And that's good." Said Jack. He turned his attention to Azmuth. "How long will it take to fix the Omnitrix?"

"A few hours, four at the most." Azmuth hopped onto Jack's wrist and removed the core from the Omnitrix.

"Wait, it only took you a few minutes to disable to self destruct mode, so why's it going to take hours to make it work?"

"Energy from the Omega Lock has interfered with its link to the Codon Stream."

"How'd you know about the Omega Lock?"

"I've been monitoring Cybertron since it went dark."

"Okay, anything else you'd like to tell us, 'Azmuth'?" Asked Arcee.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I have contacted one of the Autobots that I know, one by the name of Ultra Magnus."

"Ultra Magnus is coming here?"

"Indeed, he will be taking you and Jackson back to Earth." Azmuth began to disassemble the Omnitrix core. "He shall arrive tomorrow."

"Why don't you teleport us back?"

"The Decepticons will be able to detect my teleportation signal."

"Azmuth, mind if you give the Omnitrix a few upgrades?" Asked Jack.

"Like what?"

"Make the charge last longer? Maybe give me master control?"

"Perhaps. But while I make the repairs, you and Arcee may wait outside."

Arcee stood up and found that she was just a bit too tall for this room. She hit her head on the ceiling, getting a chuckle out of several of the other Galvans that were in the room.

"Very funny." Arcee activated her mass alteration circuit and shrank to about Jack's height. She and Jack exited the building and found themselves on a balcony that was overlooking a tiny metropolis that was built on a swamp.

Arcee sat on the floor and stretched. While Arcee relaxed, Jack came to a relativization.

"Arcee," Jack began. "Team Prime might be scattered to the winds. We could be the only ones left." The human teen sat next to Arcee. The autobot warrior draped her arm over her partner's shoulder.

"I don't believe that Jack, and I know you're thinking the same thing."

"Maybe not, but the Decepticons outnumber us a hundred to one. Aren't there any more Autobots out there who could help?"

Arcee had a sad look in her eyes. "The war for Cybertron took a heavy toll, but there were others who escaped in the Ark."

"Okay, so, where are they?"

Arcee reached into a planter and scooped up a handful of the soil. "Scattered to the winds." She let the dirt get picked up by the Galvan wind as it was carried off. "So let's focus on getting back home after Azmuth fixes the watch, and then we focus on getting Team Prime back together."

Back on Earth, with Bumblebee and Raf...

Bumblebee drove down a lonely road. Raf meanwhile was on his computer, looking for signs of the others.

Bumblebee buzzed to ask if Raf found anyone.

"Nada, Bee. Just the same old rubber masks and bad C.G. Haven't even found any new pictures of Jack's aliens, but the usual conspiracy websites might be our only chance to-" Raf then found something, or someone that might help. "Whoa! I found something! It's Ratchet!" Raf had found what was unmistakably Ratchet in the woods. He was posed in the manner that you'd see Bigfoot in.

Darkmount...

Starscream grunted in frustration. "Shockwave's toadying is so transparent." Starscream spat as he looked at Megatron, Vilgax, Knockout, and Shockwave speaking amongst each other. "Megatron's respect is earned by deeds, not words." He proceeded to look through the various pictures that were on the internet. "Useless, useless, useless. Billions of cameras in the hands of those miserable humans. One of them is bound to catch an Autobot eventually." He then found the picture of Ratchet. "Well, well, well. What have we here? Lord Megatron, I have found something of great interest!"

Megatron and the others turned to face Starscream.

Back with 'Bee and Raf...

"The photo was taken yesterday in a junkyard outside Woodland Park. I'd better scrub Ratchet and replace him with..." Raf said as he removed the image.

Back at Darkmount...

"An Autobot!" Starscream turned to show the others what he found, only to have the image been replaced with an animation of Ditto wearing a top hat and tap dancing. (Geez Raf's a good hacker)

Knockout laughed at Starscream's expense. He then saw Megatron shooting him a death stare and quickly stopped. He stood at attention.

"Wait, what? It was just here!" Starscream tried to prove he wasn't mad. "Surely, one of you saw it."

"Megatron, is this how your second in command normally acts?" Vilgax was as much confused as he was angered.

"Starscream, you would do well to take a cue from Soundwave on occasion and keep things to yourself!"

"Megatron, would there be anyway I could borrow Soundwave, I have need of one such as him in my forces." Vilgax said as he and the other four cybertronians walked out.

"Vow of silence such a cop-out." Starscream grumbled once he was sure the spymaster was out of earshot.

"Perhaps. But there is the matter of locating the Autobots."

"And how? Use the internet?" Knockout asked.

"I have a much more, effective method." Vilgax began. "Your Autobot prisoner is a better source of information than this primitive data net, one that can easily be hacked."

"I will have you know, Vilgax, that I have been grinding Wheeljack down for days. If he knew anything, he would've spilled it by now." I am truly surprised Megatron hasn't welded Starscream's mouth shut.

"Again, some prove to be better at holding their tongues than others." Megatron said.

"Perhaps you would have better results if instead of a club, you used a scalpel." Vilgax said.

"A logical sentiment." Shockwave agree with the visiting warlord. "I recommend a cortical psychic patch."

"Yes. The cortical psychic patch. Proof of the phrase, you cannot hide what is inside." A Shockwave walked to the door, Vilgax grabbed Shockwave's shoulder. "I shall accompany you. We will give this Wheeljack one final chance to comply."

"And why would he answer to you?"

"Respect brought out by fear. I command it even on your backwater world."

With Bulkhead and Miko...

The two best buds were sitting on a hill, facing the sunset.

"I don't think he's coming." Miko thought that Wheeljack was dead.

Bulkhead looked down at his friend. "Don't worry, Miko every Wrecker knows the protocol. Jackie will show. If he's still kicking."

Back at Darkmount...

Wheeljack was strapped to an operating table.

"Rise and shine Wheeljack." Said who Wheeljack thought was Starscream.

"Oh hey Screamy. Back for another go?"

"No. I am here for my first go." Vilgax stepped into Wheeljack's field of vision.

"V-V-Vilgax! What're you doing here?!"

"Silence Autobot filth. I am here to make you an offer. Tell us where your comrades are, and you may go free."

"I told your 'con pals a thousand times, I don't know nothing." Wheeljack then spit at Vilgax.

The cybernetically enhance Chimera suis Generis growled before grabbing Wheeljack's head in one of his clawed hands. He began apply pressure, which made the Wrecker grunt in pain. He stopped when he remembered.

"We need your skull intact, Autobot." Vilgax then walked away.

"Do whatever you guys have planned. You won't find anything in there." Wheeljack then saw Shockwave. "Do your worst, Doc. I'm a Wrecker. I can take it."

Shockwave approached Wheeljack with the end of the cable for the cortical psychic patch. "Trust me you, in fact, cannot."

Later...

"The patch failed to yield any new information on the whereabouts of the Autobots." Shockwave said to Megatron, who was sitting upon his throne.

Megatron thought this over. "I see."

"Ah, then it would seem that Wheeljack has outlived his usefulness." Starscream wanted to end Wheeljack. "With your permission, Lord Megatron, I will see to his immediate termination."

Later...

Wheeljack moaned as he came to. He was in handcuffs and had been escorted by a pair of vehicon flyers.

"Wake up, Wrecker." One of the vehicons said as it whack wheeljack upside the head with its blaster. "Time to smelt."

Wheeljack looked to see that he was on a platform that was above a pool of molten metal.

"Commander Starscream wanted you conscious so you'd know precisely who ordered your execution." The other vehicon said.

"Where is Screamy?" Wheeljack asked. "Doesn't have the bearings to do this himself?" He was punched by one of the Vehicons and almost fell in. "Unh!"

"Jump." One of the Vehicons poked Wheeljack with his blaster.

"Hey, are you a flier?" Wheeljack side kicked one of the Vehicons. He then grabbed one of them and threw it into the pit below. The two 'cons that were on the other side had their blasters trained on Wheeljack. "Okay, I'll jump." He jumped into the pit. He saw that the vehicon that he had tossed in had yet to fall into the pit. It transforming and as it flew up, Wheeljack landed on it. "Thought so!" He was glad that he was right. "Yeehaw!" He exclaimed as the vehicon flew out of the smelting pit.

The other three Vehicons transformed and flew at Wheeljack, who tried to brake his cuffs by slamming them. When the Vehicons shot at him, he steered the one that he had hijacked towards a pillar. "Thanks for the ride." He then jumped off before the 'con crashed. He then jumped onto another one of the flying cons. Two of the remaining vehicons sped up and flew over one of the fortress's fusion cannons. They fired at both the Autobot, and at their conrad

Wheeljack held out his arms. His cuffs were shut off. He deployed his blaster and fired at the flying 'cons, shooting them down and causing the to crash. More blaster fire came from below Wheeljack. He took aim and fired at the 'cons that were flying up. He fired at one of them and destroyed it. He then tilted the con down. When he got close to the ground, Wheeljack yanked in the front end of the Vehicon's jet mode, causing it to pull up slightly, which in turn, caused it to skid on the ground. He jumped off, and transformed. He then drove away as the Vehicon exploded.

Very soon...

"This is how you handle things?!" A furious Megatron demanded an explanation.

Shockwave, who stood between Starscream and Vilgax replied with: "Wheeljack is not the first prisoner to escape Starscream's care, Autobot, or otherwise." Shockwave referred to Arcee, Cliffjumper, Fowler, and now Wheeljack.

"Actually, master, I allowed Wheeljack to escape." Starscream said rather proudly.

"You what?!" Megatron was furious. He stood up from his throne and approached Starscream.

"But the Autobot's every move, his every word, will be monitored." Starscream held up a small device that looked like one of Dreadwing's bombs, but had a green circle in the center. "Thanks to a simple tracking device implanted while the prisoner was still unconscious, following the failed cortical psychic patch. Now all we have to do is wait, watch, and listen. When the Wrecker reunites with the other Autobots, my armada will strike."

"Excellent Starscream, you yourself are still useful." Vilgax said. "But for how long? I wonder."

At Ratchet's location...

Bumblebee drove into the junkyard that Ratchet had been located in.

"He's got to be here." Raf said as he looked around for an the Autobot medic. Raf refused to give up hope. Suddenly, Bumblebee hit the brakes. He had his headlights pointed at a familiar ambulance. Raf got out of Bumblebee's alt mode. The autobot then transformed seconds later. "Ratchet!" Rat shouted as he ran towards the ambulance. "Ratchet, it's me, Raf!" Raf didn't know why he didn't respond. "Uh, Ratchet?" He asked.

Ratchet had enough of it. "Go away!"

Bumblebee crouched down and buzzed in confusion.

"You're interrupting my power down." Came Ratchet's responce.

Bumblebee and Raf looked at each other with equally confused expressions. Bumblebee buzzed at his human friend.

"Come on, Ratchet, we need your help to find the others." Raf tried to inspire Ratchet, which Bumblebee added to with his bleeping.

"We can't stop Megatron, not anymore." Ratchet said. "The war is over, and we lost." Yeah, because of you.

Raf couldn't believe that the Autobot who tried to make a space bridge by supercharging the ground bridge was giving up. "You're giving up?! We can't just give up!"

Ratchet transformed and stared down at the nearly thirteen year old human. "Then tell me what we can do without communications, without a ground bridge, without a base of operations or resources of any kind!"

Bumblebee brought up something that he never thought saying before now.

"Bee's right." Raf responded. "We know Starscream had access to a ground bridge while he was operating solo."

And here's where hindsight kicks in. "Yes, yes, he'd clearly been using the derelict Decepticon ship the Harbinger." Ratchet didn't even show the slightest hint of realizing that all of this could've been prevented if he, or any of the other Autobots had realized this sooner. "What does that have to do with anything?!" The exiled medic asked.

"It could be full of Cybertronian tech, and it's probably abandoned again now that Starscream's back with the 'Cons." Raf stated.

Ratchet scoffed. "Well, resources won't be of much use, not without someone to - lead us."

"It's a start!" Raf shouted. "We could get Jack to lead us, if he's still alive." Hey Raf, now's not Jack's time to lead.

"Though I think Jack would make an admirable leader, you'll just have to start without me. This is someone else's fight now."

"There is no one else, Ratchet just us, just the team."

Ratchet thought this over before turning around. "Please!" He then transformed. "Just let me rust in peace."

Raf turned around and walked away before saying: "Come on, Bee."

Bumblebee went back into his alt mode. He let Raf back in before driving off.

In the caverns underneath the old base...

Optimus was breathing heavily. Smokescreen walked through the wall of the cave.

"I'm back." The white and blue autobot said calmly. Optimus moaned out of pain when he leaned to look up at Smokescreen, who walked over to Optimus and leaned next to him. "I combed through every square micron of our old base. I couldn't find Ratchet's medical kit, not even a bandage."

"The Forge..." Optimus said weakly. "of Solus Prime."

"It's gone, too. The 'Cons picked the place clean." Smokescreen replied.

Optimus began breathing raggedly.

Smokescreen, not knowing what the dying Prime meant, said: "Wait, if you had the Forge, you could fix yourself up, power of the Primes." Smokescreen got an idea. If he was a dog, his ears would be perking up. "Optimus, hang on just a little longer. That hammer's got to be somewhere in Megatron's fortress."

The next day, with Miko and Bulkhead...

Miko was sleeping while Bulkhead kept watch. Somehow, she was comfortable being propped up against Bulkhead's foot.

As Miko continued sleeping, Bulkhead heard the roar of an engine. He move his foot, which cause Miko to fall to the ground. "Miko, wake up."

Miko yawned as she stretched. "Why?" She asked.

Bulkhead turned his right hand into a blaster and his left into a mace. "Someone's coming."

The engine got closer. Bulkhead charged up his blaster. As it got closer, Bulkhead knew the engine sounded familiar. He retracted his weapons. "I'd know the hum of that engine anywhere!"

From around a corner sped a white sports car with red trim. When it got within visual range, it transformed into Wheeljack.

Bulkhead ran up to Wheeljack and bear hugged him. "Jackie! Where have you been, buddy?!"

"Catching up with a few old dance partners." Wheeljack said, his face looking like Bulkhead was squeezing the breath out of him.

Miko, like always, was taking pictures. "Good to see you, kid." Bulkhead let go of Wheeljack. "Safe to assume we're the only three Wreckers around?"

Miko wanted to get back at the 'cons. "So, what are we waiting for? Let's do some damage!"

Back on the Nemesis...

"What's our next move Jackie? Circle back to base?" Bulkhead said, his voice being heard by the listening device.

"There is no base. 'Cons blasted it to dust."

"The dimwit played right into my hands." Starscream was way too quick to cast judgement on Wheeljack's intelligence. He chucked evilly. "All seekers to the flight deck! We have pinpointed the enemy!" Five arial vehicons took flight and were heading in the direction that the tracker said Wheeljack was. "Attack! My armada."

Back at Wheeljack's location...

The Vehicons landed. They deployed their blasters and looked around for the Wrecker.

"We're at the coordinates, Commander Starscream."

"Hold fast." Starscream said over their communicator. "They are approaching your position."

They turned their attention to a river that had something floating towards them. They retracted their blasters when they looked to see what it was that was in the river.

Little did the Decepticons know, but they were being watched by Miko, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack who were on the edge of a cliff.

"Targets in range?" Asked Bulkhead.

Wheeljack held up a detonator. He was waiting for the right moment.

"And boom." He pressed the activate button on the detonator.

"Grenade!" One of the Vehicons shouted. He and the other four were destroyed.

Back on the Nemesis, Starscream lost contact with his troops. He gasped knowing that he had been had. "He he tricked us!"

While Megatron was calmly showing his rage, Vilgax was not so subtle. He was not one to let failure go unpunished. He grasped one of Starscream's wings and ripped it off.

Starscream screamed in pain. The wound was gushing energon.

"You may have outlived your usefulness to our alliance for any purpose besides a brief amusement." He had used his other hand to grab Starscream by the neck, strangling him. "I do not tolerate failure in the slightest." He tossed Starscream at Knockout. He then pointed the tip of the wing at the bleeding Decepticon's forehead. "You are very fortunate that you are not one of my direct subordinates. If you were, your punishment would be much more, severe." He tossed Knockout the severed wing. "Reattach that doctor, and make sure it's as painful as you can."

"Y-Y-Yes sir." Knockout left the room in a hurry. The bleeding and near unconscious Starscream was dragged away by a pair of Vehicons.

Back with Miko and the two Wreckers...

Miko turned to face Wheeljack. She asked: "How'd you know the 'Cons planted a tracker on you?"

"I figured the 'Cons were up to something, so I did a little poking around under my hood." Wheeljack explained.

"That's my Jackie." Bulkhead was used to Wheeljack acting like this.

"So, what's our next move?"

"Well, for starters, we gotta find a way of taking out bucket head's SIC."

"What? Starscream? How hard could it be-" Bulkhead was interrupted.

"Truly wish that was the case Bulk, but we got a much, much bigger problem on our hands."

"Who're you talking about?" Miko asked.

"I don't know if it was the real deal. But right before I escaped, guess who I saw helping out the 'cons."

Bulkhead and Miko both thought this over for a moment before Miko said: "Okay, we give up. Spill."

"Vilgax."

"What?!" Miko was horrified. "Vilgax is working with Megatron?!"

"Oh scrap." Bulkhead muttered. "He's bad news. Rumor has it, that he offlined a whole team of Wreckers, by himself. But why's he working with Megatron?"

"Didn't stick around long enough to find out. Any idea why?" Wheeljack and Bulkhead turned to Miko.

"Well, every time he's attacked recently have been to get the Omnitrix from Jack." Miko said. "But we gotta find some way of taking him out. Even when Jack had access to the Omnitrix's master control he didn't stand a chance."

"So, got any ideas of how to take out Megatron's new pal?"

"Well, I did manage to salvage some munitions from the Jackhammer on my way out." Wheeljack said. "But, and I can't believe it's me saying this, but we should play it safe, for now at least."

"So what'ya got planned?"

Wheeljack transformed. "Well, you thought that made a loud noise? Just wait for the follow up." He then drove off. Bulkhead transformed. He let Miko climb in before driving off.

The Harbinger...

In the crashed Decepticon warship, Bumblebee was hard at work trying to get its systems up and running.

The black and yellow Autobot plugged a cable into an energon power cell. He gave Raf a thumbs up.

"Hold it right there, Bee." Raf instructed. He pressed two of the buttons on the key pad with his feet before pressing something on the screen. "And..." Something started to work. "powering up!" What ever was starting to work, shut down, causing the lights to go off. While Bumblebee drooped his doorwings in sadness, Raf optimisically said: "Keep trying. We'll figure it out."

They then heard someone that they knew speak up. "Ah-ah-ah." Bumblebee and Raf turned to see Ratchet. "You're miscalibrating the Energon transducer."

"Ratchet!" Raf was glad to see that the medic had gotten out of his grey period.

He pushed Bumblebee out of the way as he walked over to the control panel that Raf stood on. "Now step out of my way so I can work." Ratchet smiled at Raf.

Galvan Prime...

Repairing the Omnitrix had taken more time then Azmuth told Jack that it would take. Jack and Arcee spent the night on the Galvan homeworld.

"Jackson Dar- er Tennyson, first thinker Azmuth would like to see you and your Autobot companion." A Galvan that had a longer than average neck said.

"You hesitated on saying my last name. Something bothering you little guy?" Jack asked as he picked the Galvan up by the back of his green tunic.

"Nothing Tennyson. Please put me down." Jack complied with what the Galvan had requested of him. "And as for your surname, First Thinker Azmuth had learned only recently that your mother had resumed using her original family name rather recently, but that is not the point, first thinker Azmuth has requested your presence. As in now."

"Okay. I'm going." Jack then shook Arcee. "'Cee, coming?"

"Five more minutes Optimus." Arcee said in her sleep.

"She'll be up soon." Jack ran down the hall of the building that he and Arcee stayed in, careful not to step on any of the Glavan that were going about their daily business.

He soon arrived in the lab.

"Azmuth, sorry if I-"

"Got distracted by Albedo? Yes, he always had a habit of talking without saying much." Azuth said as he approached Jack. Jack knelt down so the Galvan didn't have to climb up him to get to the watch portion of the Omnitrix.

"So, did you fix it?" Asked Jack.

"Oh course I did." Azmuth said as he placed the Omnitrix core into the watch. "And as for the modifications that you requested, I increased the amount of time you can remain in one of your alternate forms by 400%, and you have access to the master control, but, only for forty eight earth hours."

"Why just for a short period of time?" Asked a confused Jack.

"I highly doubt your mother would approve of me allowing you to use the full power of the Omnitrix, so you will still have to revert back into your human state. But enough talk, let us see if my repairs were successful. Go ahead, think of the name of one of the aliens that you have unlocked." Azmuth said.

Jack thought of Big Chill. An instant later, he was transformed. "Woah. Thanks Azmuth."

"You're welcome Jack." Azmuth saw that Big Chill was heading out. "Jack, if what you said about the Decepticons is true, then your allies will need my help in activating something that can stand up to Megatron."

"So, you wanna come to Earth with me?"

"Indeed."

A female galvan wearing white armor ran up to Azmuth.

"First Thinker Azmuth, our sensors have picked up a Cybertronian starship entering the system." She said. "It's Magnus."

"Then let us go Jack, we have a few hours to prepare."

"Okay."

Later...

Jack, Arcee, and Azmuth were waiting on a landing pad for Ultra Magnus to arrive.

In order to pass the time, Arcee and Jack took to making small talk.

"Arcee, even if this Ultra Magnus is as good as you say he is, what about Optimus?"

"What d'ya mean?" Asked Arcee.

"The last time things looked this bleak, Optimus slipped me that key card, something we could hang our hopes on."

"Jack, I know that despite having the Omnitrix, you're feeling helpless. But this doesn't need to be your burden."

The sound of a jet flying overhead was heard as a Cybertronian spaceship that resembled a helicopter with massive rocket boosters flew above the three of them.

"Besides Jack, I don't think we're gonna need that key card."

"Why's that?" He asked.

The ship landed. Azmuth, Jack, and Arcee got up and walked towards it.

A boarding ramp lowered. Out of it walked an Autobot that was light blue and red. He resembled Optimus, but his helmet and shoulder pads were designed differently.

"Meet Ultra Magnus." Azmuth said.

Earth, Darkmount...

"So, not only did you fail to destroy the Autobots but you allowed their number to increase!" A furious Megatron asked a recently repaired Starscream. "Is there no one who can bring me their heads?!"

"If I may, lord Megatron." Shockwave began. "During my exile on Cybertron, I resumed work on a long-dormant project one that I believe may provide a solution to our current problem."

Shockwave pressed a few buttons on a keypad. On one of the screens, an image of something that resembled a DNA molecule popped up.

Knockout knew what this molecule was. "Cyber nucleic acid?"

"For those who do not know, it is the building blocks of all Cybertronian life." Shockwave explained. "This hails from a specimen I excavated upon our planet and has yielded promising results."

"The Autobots and their human allies continue to evade us." Vilgax said. "What makes you think we can afford to wait for the answer to our prayers to birthed in some petri dish?"

"You misunderstand." Shockwave corrected. "The subject has been fully cultivated. It need only be transported from my laboratory on Cybertron."

While Starscream looked terrified, Vilgax was intrigued, as was Megatron.

"Then by all means, activate the space bridge."

Shockwave's lab, Cybertron...

Shockwave exited the space bridge and began the process of breathing life into his 'monster', which floated in a tube full of a yellow fluid. Shockwave walked up to a keypad and pressed several buttons that caused the lights to turn on. Seconds later, electricity crackled as it arched down towards the tube with the subject, which was draconian in design. The creature opened its optics, which were neither autobot blue, nor decepticon red, the optics on this beast were yellow. The fluid drained from the tube. The creature growled.

Megatron's throne 'room'...

Megatron was sitting on his throne, tapping on it as he waited. Vilgax stood to his right, while Knockout, Soundwave, and Starscream were on the lower level of the the throne's platform. The space bridge opened on the opposite side of the platform. Shockwave walked out of it.

"I present to you, my liege the ultimate Autobot hunter."

The sound of pounding footsteps was heard as something walked toward the exit of the space bridge. A five clawed foot came out of the portal. Soon after, a reptilian head with yellow optics that was made out of some black bio metal. It was big. Not Way Big big, but it was bigger than any of the Autobots or Decepticons on Earth. It had at the end of its tail, a three pronged blade.

As the robot dragon exited the space bridge, the all the decepticons, even Megatron showed some semblance of fear. However, Vilgax was not even intimidated by the beast Shockwave had brought, but he was impressed nonetheless.

It reared up and unleashed a draconian roar. The Predacon has arrived.

To be continued...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Aw yeah! Predaking, the best thing beast hunters did, is here.
> 
> But on to the actual story stuff. I know that having Vilgax ally himself with anyone might seem out of character, but as Vilgax has demonstrated and will continue to demonstrate, he will forge alliances if he has something to gain. And by allying with the 'cons, he has the potential to gain the Omnitrix.
> 
> And I had the scene were Vilgax basically tortures Starscream for Wheeljack outsmarting him mainly because it would seem like something he'd do. Plus, when you think about it, it's Steve Blum(Vilgax) torturing Steve Blum(Starscream).


	42. Prey

Where we left off...

The Decepticons were cowering from the black and orange dragon that Shockwave had brought before them. It growled as it looked over its surroundings.

It roared at the Chimera Suis Generis warlord that approached it. "Tell me, what is this creature called?"

"A Predacon." Starscream cowered behind the warlord that had nearly killed him. "They've been extinct since the beginning of Cybertronian history."

"Indeed." Shockwave approached his 'pet'. "But the specimen you see before you was bred in the laboratory, cloned from fossilized remains, which I discovered on Cybertron."

"Shockwave, it does my spark good to see you once again tampering with creation." Megatron said as he approached the beast.

"Master, please! Keep your distance!"

"No need for alarm." Came Shockwave's response. "The beast is completely under my control."

The predacon growled lightly as it brought its head towards Megatron.

"Such primal magnificence." Megatron was truly impressed.

"Indeed. But, how will it locate the Autobot?" Vilgax asked.

"With this." Shockwave held out a small vial of energon. "A sample of Energon, from Wheeljack, spilled during the Autobot's failed interrogation." Shockwave held the vial in front of the predacon's face. The predacon scanned the energon.

"Then, let the hunt begin."

The Predacon extended its orange wings. It took flight, leaving Darkmount and flying after Wheeljack.

At a Decepticon Energon mine...

Miko, Wheeljack, and Bulkhead were sitting atop a hill that was near the entrance to a cave.

"Guys, you know I'm all for blowin' the scrap outta stuff, but what does flattening a Decepticon mine have to do with getting the band back together and taking down Megatron and Vilgax?" Miko asked, she punched the air when she got to the two names.

"Simple." Wheeljack answered. "When we light up this place, the blast'll be big and unmistakable."

"Any Autobot within 500 klicks will see the sky glowin' with Energon, and come runnin'." Bulkhead continued.

Miko had a smile on her face. "Then bring the rain."

The Harbinger...

Raf and Ratchet had gotten a lot of the crashed ship's systems working again.

"Mainframe's up and running." Raf said. "But I'll need help hacking the operating codes."

"Even if the ground bridge proves functional, it will be next to worthless without a means of pinpointing the current locations of our compatriots." Ratchet added.

Bumblebee's next series of whirrs was probably something rather dumb, seeing a Ratchet's response was: "Use your head, Bumblebee. If the Decepticons had the ability to track Autobot signals, we'd have all been at Megatron's mercy here on Earth a long time ago."

"Back where we started." Raf moped.

Ratchet then had some hope. "But not if I can reconfigure these Decepticon frequencies. At the very least, we may be able to access their comm-link."

Galvan Prime...

Arcee still couldn't believe that Ultra Magnus was here. She thought Azmuth was playing some kinda sick joke on her.

"No one's seen or heard from you since Cybertron went dark." Arcee said. "How did you find your way to Galvan Prime?"

Ultra Magnus didn't like Arcee's lack of formality. "Soldier, we may not be on Cybertron, but military protocol remains."

"My apologies, Sir."

Jack had only heard Arcee address Optimus as sir, and even that was rare. "Sir?"

"Advise the native life-form to watch its tone as well."

"What?" Jack couldn't believe that this 'Ultra Magnus' guy thought he was from this planet. "Who is this guy?"

Arcee bent down next to Jack. "Ultra Magnus was Optimus' key Lieutenant during the war back on Cybertron. Very 'by the book'." She whispered. "Just go with it."

"As for your broader question, my story is that of all Autobots since the exodus." Ultra Magnus explained. "I wandered the spaceways in search of others, reuniting with some, often only to see them fall at the hands of the Decepticons."

"Until Azmuth detected the Omega beam, and told you to come here."

"If you are referring to the massive energy burst that my ship's scanners detected that had originated on Cybertron, that would be affirmative." Ultra Magnus explained. "But as to how I came to find my way to Galvan Prime, my ship was in need of repairs. It needed a part that only the Galvan know how to make." He continued. "However, I did make my way to a planet orbiting around a yellow star that the natives upon that world referred to as Earth. Upon my arrival on that world, it became evident that planet had been invaded."

"Earth, that's where I'm from. Did you find any one else?" Jack asked he saw Ultra Magnus' look of disapproval. He stood at attention. "Sir."

"Indeed." My scanners also detected Autobot life signals."

"Signals? As in plural? - Sir."

"Four total."

"And with Arcee here, that makes five, out of seven." Jack was thinking the worst.

"Jack, that doesn't necessarily mean what you're thinking." Arcee tried to alleviate her partner's despair.

"She's right, Jackson. Autobot signals can't be detected when they're shielded." Azmuth added. "Ultra Magnus, I suggest we depart for Earth as soon as your slipspace drive is repaired, which should be about a minute from now."

"Okay, so with this 'slipspace drive' how long will it take until we get to Earth?"

"Minutes."

"What?" Arcee was confused. "How?"

"It would take too long to explain. We have to get to Earth as soon as we can." Azmuth told the Autobot. "Let us get aboard Magnus' ship and head to your planet Jackson."

Back on Earth...

Smokescreen, still using the phase shifter, rose out of the ground. He looked up to see Darkmount.

"Cozy little place you built for yourself, Megatron." He realized that his work was ahead of him. "Finding the Forge in there may take awhile." He then saw the Nemesis. "Then, again, maybe you still keep your valuables in the usual place."

Soon...

Smokescreen poked his head through a wall. He looked to his left to see two Vehicons walking down the hall, away from him. He then ran across the hall. He ran through another wall and onto a boarding ramp that went to the Nemesis.

He entered the warship.

"I won't let you down, Optimus." Smokescreen said as he snuck around.

Smokescreen then heard Starscream's voice. He hid in the wall he had just walked out of.

Starscream was complaining. "I'm sorry, 'overreacting?' Easy for you to say, Knockout."

Nobody here wants your post." Starscream and Knockout came from around a corner seconds later. "I, on the other hand, hold the most coveted position within the Decepticon ranks. And no matter what he may claim, I know that Shockwave is plotting to usurp me! Did you see the smug look in his eye when he unveiled that vile beast to lord Megatron?"

Smokescreen was panting at how close he was to getting caught. He turned around and walked forward. Accidently, he had walked backwards into the stasis pod that Airachnid was trapped in. He turned around and let out a scared cry when he came face to frozen face with the decepticon interrogator. He jumped out of the pod. "You don't scare me, ugly." Smokescreen arrogantly said. He then saw on the other side of the room, the Forge of Solus Prime, which was on display in all it's glory. He walked towards it. "Hello, beautiful."

At the Energon mine...

Wheeljack placed a grenade on the wall of the mine. He pressed the activation button, which linked it to a detonator. He and Bulkhead gave each other the thumbs up before they ran out of the mine. They ran up to where Miko was.

"Munitions planted." Bulkhead said.

"Let's get this party started." Wheeljack was about to press the activate button, but Miko noticed something.

"Company." She pointed in the direction of the approaching Predacon.

Wheeljack, not knowing what it was asked: "Megatron?"

Bulkhead had no idea what it was either, but he at least knew it wasn't Megatron, well, this version at least. "Nah. Bigger."

The Predacon fell up rapidly, gliding as it held its wings close to its body as is spun. It extended its wings when it was in front of the moon. It then kept on flying at the Autobot it was tracking.

"And I don't remember seeing that move in buckethead's repertoire."

It got closer. It flapped its wings as it hovered. A part of its chest lit up bright yellowish orange. It unleashed a stream of super hot fire at the Wreckers and the human honorary Wrecker, who could only look at it with a mix of shock and amazement.

Before the flames hit, Bulkhead grabbed Miko as he and Wheeljack got out of the way.

The predacon flew up, most likely to get a better shot at its target.

While the two Autobots didn't recognized what kinda creature just attacked them, Miko either knew, or thought she knew. "A dragon? Where'd the 'Cons get a dragon?"

Bulkhead and Wheeljack looked at each other. "What's a dragon?" They asked.

Miko couldn't believe that neither of them knew what a dragon was. And honestly, so am I, seeing as humans all over the world have stories about the usually firebreathing creatures. "What's a dragon?" She began to explain. "Giant flying fire-breathing lizard." She pointed at the Predacon.

It took another pass and unleashed a stream of flames at its target. Bulkhead and Wheeljack split up. Bulkhead transformed, and with Miko still in hand, she ended up in the passenger seat.

It landed on the ground. It raised its head up and stared down Wheeljack while growling at him. "Ahhh!" Was Wheeljack's battle cry as he deployed his blasters and fired at the Predacon. In response, the cybertronian reptile turned, using its tail to strike Wheeljack, knocking him into a rock.

As the Predacon approached Wheeljack, intent on finishing the Wrecker off, it was sucker punched by Bulkhead, who used his mace arm.

The Predacon charge up its flame breath. Bulkhead saw this, he turned and ran from it, however, when it unleashed its signature attack, Bulkhead got caught in the blast. However, he wasn't damaged at all.

Miko ran up to her best bud that was on fire in a few spots. "Bulkhead, you okay?"

The green Autobot patted out the flames that were still on him. "Easy, I may be hot to the touch." He cautioned.

Miko noticed something strange. "Why isn't it coming after us?"

The Predacon then heard Wheeljack's voice. "Lookin' for me, beast? I'm right here."

The Predacon heard something weird. It looked at its feet and saw a grenade. The grenade went off, but the Predacon was unharmed.

"We're gonna need more firepower!" Shouted Bulkhead.

Wheeljack looked to the mine that he and Bulkhead had rigged to blow. "Good thing I know just where to find some!"

"Incoming!" Wheeljack shouted as he ran through the part of the mine where there was still energon to be found.

One of the miners shouted: "Autobots!" They deployed their blasters and were ready to fire, but lowered their weapons when they heard the Predacon approaching. The miners ran in the same direction as Wheeljack. When Wheeljack got far enough into the mine, he transformed, did a 180 degree turn and drove out of the mine as fast as possible.

Outside, Miko and Bulkhead were anxiously waiting for Wheeljack to come out. They saw Wheeljack's headlights as he drove in. He transformed, did a jump back flip and slid on the ground before coming to a stop in front of Bulkhead and Miko. "And the walls came tumblin' down." He said as he pressed the activation button on the detonator. The mine exploded, as did the Energon that was inside.

Miko cheered, thinking the Predacon was dead. "Yes! Snuff the tragic dragon!" Something was stirring in the rubble. The Predacon was unharmed. "We're toast."

The Predacon looked at the three of them. It charge up it's flame breath and prepared to fire. It unleashed its attack, which the stunned trio had no time to dodge. However, when the flames hit, they screamed, but were unharmed. When the fire cleared, they saw what, or who had saved them. It was Heatblast, who had absorbed all the flames.

"Jack? Boy am I glad to see you."

"Wish I could say the same." Heatblast turned to face the Predacon. "Okay flame breath, why don't you mess with someone who has some real firepower!"

The Predacon took flight ready to engage this new creature. However, it was shot at by Ultra Magnus' ship.

"Good. The calvary." Heatblast said. He turned into Big Chill and grabbed Miko.

"So, it's one of ours?" Bulkhead asked.

"Does it matter?" Wheeljack rebutted.

Big Chill flew away from the Predacon as Bulkhead and Wheeljack ran. Ultra Magnus' ship lower the boarding ramp as the four outside tried to outrun the flying predacon.

Bulkhead and Wheeljack made it to the ship and got on the boarding ramp. Big Chill meanwhile, phased through the hull of the ship.

The ramp raised up. The ship zoomed off.

Big Chill placed Miko on the floor before he flew over to Arcee. He then turned back into his human standard form.

"Hey." Jack said as he waved.

"Jack!" Miko joyfully shouted as she ran up to the Omnitrix user. She pulled him into a tight hug.

"Arcee!" Bulkhead pulled Arcee into and equally tight hug.

"Miko. Can't breathe." Miko let go of Jack before she punched him in the arm. Jack grunted.

"Weakling."

"Thanks for the save." Wheeljack said to Arcee after Bulkhead put her down."

"Thank the Commander, and Azmuth."

Ultra Magnus was flying the ship. "Soldiers." He said while looking over his shoulder.

Wheeljack didn't like Ultra Magnus. "You?"

Bulkhead however had different feelings towards the new arrival. "Ultra Magnus? It's an honor."

"It's an honor, Sir." The commander corrected.

"And who's that?" Miko pointed to the Galvan standing on Arcee's shoulder.

"Miko, meet Azmuth." Jack said. "The guy who made the Omnitrix."

Arcee held out her hand, which Azmuth stepped onto. She placed the Galvan on the floor.

"Mikoto Nakadai, Jackson told me much about you, and before you ask any of your questions, here is a list of answers to any of question you might ask." He tossed Miko a device that looked like a regular human flash drive. "And may I please have your phone?"

"Why?"

"I think you would like it if I connected it to the extranet, giving you cellular access anywhere in the galaxy."

"Well what're you waiting for? Do it." She eagerly handed the Galvan her phone.

"I must say, it was good you decided to blow up that energon mine." Azmuth said as he began modifiying Miko's phone.

"So I guess blowin' that mine made us pretty easy to spot." Wheeljack said.

"Ultra Magnus already had a bead on your signals. It was Azmuth's scanner that allowed us to come right to you." Arcee said. "Now, care to tell us what exactly is nipping at our tailpipes?"

"We think it's a robot dragon." Miko said as they looked at the ship's scanner to show that the Predacon was still chasing them.

"Or some kind of Cybertronian reptile."

Ultra Magnus saw that the Predacon was preparing to attack. "Brace yourselves."

The ship shook. Jack turned into Diamondhead and grabbed Miko and Azmuth. He anchored his feet to the floor.

The Predacon fired a stream of flames at the ship, but Ultra Magnus swered to avoid it. He got behind it and fired at it. Only a few shots hit. The Predacon flew into a cloud and seemed to disappear.

Ultra Magnus flew through the cloud with a stern look on his face. He was waiting for the predacon to appear.

When it appeared ahead of the ship, it fired a stream of flames. The Autobot commander swerved to avoid being scorched, but it hit one of the ships engines.

"Tennyson, use your Galvanic Mechamorph form to try to fix that."

"Will do." Diamondhead turned into Upgrade. He place Azmuth it Miko's hands and Miko into Bulkhead's. He slinked to the exterior of the ship and latched himself onto the smoking thruster.

The Predacon failed to notice the Mechamorph. However, the Mechamorph saw him land on the top of the ship. When the thruster was repaired, he went back to the main area of the ship.

"It's right on top of us." Upgrade said. "I think."

The Predacon looked into the front window of the ship. It roared at the beings inside.

Upgrade and Miko screamed. On Ultra Magnus' scanner he picked something up. He pointed the ship down causing a few of them to lose their balance. They all went: "Whoa!" as the ship went into a nosedive. Ultra Magnus flew into a canyon. He slammed into the side of the canyon in an attempt to get the Predacon off his ship.

As Ultra Magnus rapidly turned to try to shake the Predacon off, the others were pactically being tossed around. Miko almost vomited as Upgrade had turned into Wildmutt and clung to the floor for dear life.

Ultra Magnus' ship got to a dead end. He pulled up. As he got to the top, the ship flipped around and flew towards a rock, which knocked the predacon off and sent it tumbling down into the canyon. The Autobots and their organic allies(since it no longer makes sense to refer to them as just human) flew away.

Unit:E hanger, Seirra Army Depot...

Gwen was on phone duty as she sat at Fowlers desk. A call came in. She pressed the answer button. She sighed in frustration before she answered. "What is it now, lord Megatron?" She asked.

"Gwendolyn, it Ratchet."

Gwen was pushed out of the way by Fowler, who was then pushed by June. "Ratchet? Where's Jack?" A concerned June asked. "Is he with you?"

"No, he is not." Ratchet answered.

Meanwhile, at the Harbinger...

"Listen, we don't have much time. I have taken a tremendous, yet calculated, risk in contacting you." Ratchet explained the danger. "Hopefully, the Decepticons are not monitoring their own frequencies as closely as they no doubt are those of the humans." Ratchet pressed several buttons on the keyboard. "I am transmitting our current coordinates."

Bumblebee came in, bleeping as he did so.

"What?" The medic was unsure of what to make of this.

Back in Fowler's office...

"Ratchet, have you heard from anyone else?" Max asked.

"What about Prime?" Fowler asked. Ratchet hung up.

Max tapped a button on his watch. He spoke into it. "Maxson, is LP in the base?" He asked.

"He is."

"Good, fire up your squadron and get LP to these coordinates."

Back at the Harbinger...

Ratchet, Raf, and Bumblebee ran out of the crashed starship to see Ultra Magnus' ship approaching in the direction of the rising sun.

Bumblebee held out his hand and told Raf to stay put.

The ship came in to land. Ratchet knew that the ship was Autobot in origin. "It's one of ours!"

The boarding ramp lowered. Miko, Jack, Arcee, Azmuth(who stood on Jack's shoulder), Wheeljack, Bulkhead, and Ultra Magnus were on it.

"Raf!" Miko ran up to hug Raf. She grabbed him and held onto him tightly.

Jack walked up to Raf. "Girl's got a grip, doesn't she?" Jack and Raf share a brotherly hug.

"Who's that?" Raf pointed at Azmuth.

"Oh, meet Azmuth."

"A pleasure to meet your Rafael. Jackson has told me that you're rather intelligent, for a human."

Ratchet was relieved to see that the others were okay. "You're alive." When Arcee and the two Wreckers stepped off, he saw the one who had flown the ship. "Ultra Magnus?" A dumbfounded Ratchet asked.

"Doctor."

Darkmount...

"What a grave disappointment this must be for you, master." Starscream said, mocking the injure Predacon and it's master. "And to make matters worse, because it cannot speak, we have no way of knowing why the Predacon failed so miserably." Starscream then struck a nerve with this next comment. "Poor, mute, mindless creature."

As Shockwave and several repair drones mended the predacon's wounds, Vilgax held up a scanner to the dragon's face.

"Though this creature cannot speak, the data the sensors on its armor collected are more than enough to determine the cause of its defeat."

"Vilgax, explain what you are doing."

"Tapping into its short term memory."

Vilgax's scanner projected an video that showed what the predacon saw. It raised up its head. While on normal speed, Vilgax saw a blue blur.

"What was that?" Megatron saw it as well.

Vilgax rewinded the video. He slowed it down. When he got down to ten million frames per second, he saw what the blur was. It was XLR8.

"Tennyson!" Vilgax hissed. He allowed the video to continue. What was seen after the Predacon's flame breath had cleared was Heatblast standing in front of Miko and the two Wreckers. Vilgax growled angrily as he crushed the scanner.

Later, at the Harbinger...

The Autobots were admiring Bumblebee's new look.

"New paint job looks good, Bee." Arcee complained. "At least you had something to work with. If I reversed my colors, I'd be pink." That line kind bugs me, and I think I know why. Yes I know that the line was to make fun of the face that Arcee's always some shade of pink, but would she be pink if she reversed her colors?

"The communications link needs further calibration to be compatible with Autobot frequencies." Ratchet explained to Ultra Magnus and Azmuth, who was standing on Ultra Magnus' shoulder.

"But what of the ship's ground bridge?" Asked Azmuth.

"The ground bridge is fully operational."

"That would've come in handy when robo-dragon was trying to eat us for breakfast." Miko said.

While Ratchet looked at Miko with a WTF face, Ultra Magnus began to find Miko rather annoying. "The indigenous population of this planet, do they all display the same disregard for authority?"

"No." Ratchet responded. "It's mostly just Miko."

Jet engines were heard approaching. It was Fowler's jet, but he didn't know that. Ultra Magnus deployed his blaster and took aim. Azmuth fell off of Ultra Magnus' shoulder, but was caught by Jack, who turned into XLR8.

Wheeljack recognized the plane. "No!"

"Don't shoot!" Arcee got in front of Ultra Magnus.

"It's Fowler." Bulkhead got in front of Arcee. "He's with us!"

The plane landed. Out of it climbed June, Max, and Fowler.

June ran up to XLR8 and hugged him tightly, sobbing while she did so.

"It's okay, mom. I'm fine." XLR8 rubbed his mother's back. "June let go of XLR8 and hugged Miko and Raf.

"Your families are safe." She said to Miko and Raf. "Agent Fowler saw to it that Alamo was evacuated in time."

June saw Azmuth approach her and Max.

"Azmuth made sure Arcee and I didn't get blasted to bits." XLR8 said.

"Azmuth?" June asked as if she didn't know him. She turned to the Galvan that was at her feet.

"Juniper Tennyson, it is good to see you."

"Same here." June said as she shook hands with the Galvan.

"Azmuth, hope you didn't berate my grandson for breaking the Omnitrix." Max added.

"Oh, that's of no concern, it'll fix itself, just give it say, two and a half years."

XLR8 then realized something. "Wait, you knew Azmuth and never told us?" XLR8 asked before he reverted to his human form.

"Yeah. So what? You had friends you never told us about."

"Fair enough."

"The only signals Ultra Magnus was able to isolate - are standing right here." Arcee explained to Fowler.

"Maybe his scanner's faulty." Wheeljack suggested sarcastically.

"So the kid's unaccounted for." Bulkhead reasoned.

"Smokescreen bridged out unaccompanied. Only Optimus knows where." Ratchet explained. "And Optimus remained behind, to destroy the ground bridge, to ensure that everyone else made it to safety." Ratchet fought back the sobs.

"I, watched the base go down." Fowler said somberly. "No one or thing walked out of there."

"Not that we could see." Max said as he and the other joined in the conversation.

"But even if Prime survived, I'm not sure we can afford to wait for him to show up." Fowler explained. "Not with Megatron holding our planet hostage from his high and mighty perch at Darkmount."

"I would be inclined to agree with the native life-form." Ultra Magnus said as he walked up. "We must stop Megatron, with or without Optimus Prime."

Max then spoke up. "Well, we might not have Optimus, but we still have a Prime."

"What do you mean?" Asked Ultra Magnus.

Max pressed a button on his watch. "Boys, bring him in."

Rotors were heard in the distance as a squadron of dual rotored vehicles flew in the direction of the Harbinger. These helicopter like aircraft were called Vertibirds. Two of the Vertibirds were carrying something.

"Um what's that?" Miko asked when she saw that the object was humanoid in shape.

"Oh yes. The decepticons will not know what hit them." Azmuth said with a grin on his face.

"You know what that is Azmuth?" Raf asked.

"Yes, and as a matter of fact, I helped design it. Behold," The feet of the robot touched the ground. The cables that allowed the robot to be carried by the vertibirds detached. "Liberty Prime, the ultimate human made weapon."

The remaining Vertibirds landed. From out of each of the Vertibirds came six humans in power armor. However, out of one only came three, but had three unarmored humans. One was Arthur Maxson, the others were Gwen Tennyson and Kevin Levin.

Kevin and Gwen ran up to Jack and the others. Gwen pulled Jack into a tight hug. "Jack, I was so worried. And so was Kevin."

"Really?" Miko asked.

"No. Okay, maybe a little."

Maxson approached Azmuth. "First Thinker Azmuth of Glavan Prime, we request your help in activating Liberty Prime."

"Under normal circumstances, I would have no such part in this endeavor of yours, but seeing as Megatron is threatening the Earth, I will finish it for you. Tell me, are all of his other systems functional?"

"They are." Maxson said.

Back in the caverns...

Smokescreen had brought the Forge of Solus Prime to Optimus.

"Optimus! I have the Forge! You can use it to repair yourself!"

"That is not the reason I had you retrieve the relic." Optimus weakly explained.

"What? I don't understand."

This next line is the most f*cking annoying thing in all of Transformers Prime. "The power of the Forge is not unlimited. Its energy has already begun to ebb."

"So it's running low, who cares?" Smokescreen still didn't understand what Optimus meant. "All we need is enough juice to get you back into fighting shape!"

"Whatever power remains must be used to rebuild the Omega lock, - to restore Cybertron." Apparently, Optimus forgot about what he said just five chapters ago.

Smokescreen didn't want Optimus to die. "But that would mean-"

"The fate of all our kind is more vital than that of any one of us." Azmuth would have a different opinion about that Optimus. "Including me."

Back outside the Harbinger...

"We must do everything in our power to ensure Megatron's downfall, but we will need to be smart about it." Ultra Magnus explained. "Liberty Prime may provide us the edge we need, but he is currently non functional."

"Whoa, who put shoulder pads in command?"

"Temporary command." Jack corrected.

"Ultra Magnus is the only logical choice." Ratchet justified the what in my mind seems f*cking insane. "He was trained by Optimus and served as his commanding officer throughout the war for Cybertron." But as far as we know, not guerrilla tactics, which is what the 'bots and the Brotherhood will need to beat the 'cons.

"Now, unless there is any further objection," He turned to Wheeljack. "soldier, please, follow me."

"Aye aye, Cap'n." Wheeljack said with a hint of hostility. He and the others followed Ultra Magnus into his ship. Ultra Magnus pressed a button that opened up a compartment that have weapons in it.

Ultra Magnus turned to his subordinates. "Autobots. Take your pick."

Wheeljack was gearing up to cause some major damage to the 'cons. "Now you're speaking my language, Sir."

Back in the caverns...

"Optimus, the Forge is a relic of the Primes." Smokescreen explained. "We can't use it to restore Cybertron, not without a Prime. Not without you.

"There will be a new Prime." Optimus said weakly.

"You can worry about that after we get you patched up, and we take down Megatron." Smokescreen stood up to give Optimus the Forge, but was stopped when Optimus put his hand on Smokescreen's arm.

"The time for a new leader is upon us. In my spark I believe that leader stands before me right now."

Smokescreen looked at Optimus with optics filled with awe.

To be concluded...


	43. Rebellion

The Harbinger...

While the giant robot Liberty Prime was being repaired by the members of the Brotherhood of Steel, Ultra Magnus was within the crashed Decepticon vessel speaking to the 'bots and their organic allies.

"Autobots." Ultra Magnus began. "We remain vastly outnumbered, and, despite our munitions, do not currently possess the firepower necessary to compromise the Decepticon citadel."

"Uncle Sam's military does." Fowler said. "I just can't let them make a move as long as Megatron's ray guns are pointed at Washington."

"Then we must infiltrate Darkmount in order to nullify its fusion cannons."

"Unfortunately, it seems the fortress is heavily shielded against unauthorized ground bridges." Azmuth added, pointing at a screen that showed Darkmount. "Even those originating from Decepticon technology."

"Guess we'll have to sneak past enemy lines. Wrecker-style."

"I couldn't deal with 'Wrecker-style' on Cybertron, and I refuse to deal with it here."

"Then why not Jack 10 style?" Jack suggested. "I could go Big Chill and sneak in undetected."

"Wouldn't recommend it." Wheeljack cautioned.

"Why?" June asked.

"Yeah, you know how someone here said things can't get worse?" Miko said. "Well, the 'cons are, well, they're working with Vilgax."

Upon hearing that, Jack gagged a bit.

"Vilgax!?" Raf, Jack, Azmuth, Arcee, June, Gwen, and Max shouted at once.

"Didn't you throw him into deep space?" Raf asked Jack.

"I did. He must've landed on Cybertron."

"But why's he working with Megatron?" June asked. "Don't they both want control of the Earth?"

"Vilgax may have his sights set on conquering this planet, but he wants the Omnitrix more, and has most likely made an agreement with Megatron regarding the Omnitrix."

"But still, Vilgax is helping the 'cons. Vilgax, the most feared guy in the galaxy, right?" Jack asked Ultra Magnus.

"Though I haven't met this Vilgax face to face, the stories I have heard about him are all cautionary tales, usually about some brave fool meeting his end at his hands."

"And Vilgax probably has his army of drones at Darkmount, plus his own starship." Max said. "Hmm. This may be a problem."

"Well I did give Jackson access to the Omnitrix's master control for a total of forty eight hours." Azmuth said. "So we have that going for us. Now, all we need is a means of thinning the Decepticon ranks to even the odds, if we're to have any hope of completing this mission. Or of surviving it."

In the caverns...

Smokescreen was pacing back and forth, trying to comprehend what Optimus had told him.

"I-I can't do this." He said. "I mean, sure, who wouldn't wanna be a Prime? But I'm really not ready for that kind of responsibility."

"Smokescreen the choice is neither yours, nor mine to make." Optimus weakly said. "When it is time the Matrix of Leadership will present itself only to one whose spark is worthy."

At an abandoned gas station...

Jack stood alone, ready to duplicate what he did earlier. "Because it worked so well last time." Jack dialed up Gwen.

Darkmount...

Starscream and Soundwave were monitoring human communications for the Autobots and their human allies.

"I knew the humans couldn't resist using their telecommunications..." Starscream said. "That is all they seem to do." Starscream does have a point there. He turned to face a group of flyers. "Seek and destroy!" He ordered.

The Harbinger...

"I have five bogeys converging right on top of Jack." Raf said.

"Not anymore." Azmuth said as he opened the ground bridge to Jack's location.

Jack ran through the portal. He jumped out before it closed. He gave a thumbs up.

"Miko, your turn." Azmuth said over the closed comm line.

In New York City...

Miko was ordering pizza in an effort to get herself noticed by the 'cons. "Hello, I need two large pies, Sicilian." She said. "You deliver, right?"

Darkmount...

The Decepticons picked up Miko.

Starscream chuckled. "Humans." He turned to face his troops. "Standby to groundbridge."

Soundwave grabbed Starscream's shoulder. He pointed at the map.

"Soundwave, why can't you accept a little good fortune? The Autobots couldn't possibly stay hidden forever."

Me: [Smiling deviously intensifies]

The Harbinger...

"I really could have used that pizza." Miko said after she exited the ground bridge.

"I've tapped into the Decepticon communications network." Ratchet said. "Are you ready, Jack?"

Jack nodded. He tried his best imitation of a Vehicon[which I think might've been a joke on the part of the writers, seeing as Jack's voice actor(Josh Keaton) is one of the guys who does the voices of the 'con soldiers.] "Decepticon command, do you read me?" It wasn't good enough.

"I remain unconvinced." Ultra Magnus said.

"How's about this." Jack transformed into Jackwolf. "Decepticon command, do you read me?"

"Better, but I will enhance your performance with static."

Darkmount...

A transmission came in.

"Decepticon command, do you read? We are under Autobot attack!" The staticy voice that was in reality Jackwolf said.

"It's one of our Energon mines! Insecticons, prepare for battle!"

The Harbinger...

Ultra Magnus readied his new heavy weapon, which looked like the path blaster. "Autobots, lock and load!"

The other Autobots activated their weapons. Bumblebee has a laser shield and blaster, Bulkhead had a heavy plasma cannon, Arcee had a beam emitter, and Wheeljack had a laser whip.

A ground bridge opened behind them.

At the Sierra Army Depot...

A squadron of fighter jets stood ready for take off.

"Keep your engines warm, boys. We launch the moment Ultra Magnus gives the all-clear." Fowler said over the comms. See, this is why I think that in the regular TFP timeline, the public should've known about the Autobots and Decepticons.

At a Decepticon energon mine...

A bunch of Insecticons prepared flew into the mine through the opening in the top.

The miners were confused to say the least.

Back at Darkmount...

One of the miners was trying to get a reason why the insecticons had been deployed to the mine. "There must be some mistake, Commander Starscream." He said. "The mine is not under attack."

"What? How can that-?" Starscream had been tricked.

"Starscream!" Megatron shouted. "Explain why my forces are scattering across this globe."

"Uh, renegade Autobot mischief, Lord Megatron!" Starscream explained. "I am in the process of deducing how they are infiltrating our communications systems without a base of-" An image of Starscream's former base of operations was brought up on Soundwave's face. "The Harbinger!"

Megatron turned to face his idiotic second in command. "You left abandoned Decepticon technology fully operational and unsecured?!" Megatron had achieved near maximum levels of Starscream directed rage. The face he had was one that should hang in a museum it's so perfect.

"Allow me to correct my oversight immediately." Starscream said whilst cowering.

"Seeker armada to the flight deck." As Starscream said this, twenty four flyers made their way to the exterior of the Nemesis. "Your target is the Decepticon ship, the Harbinger. You are to obliterate it, at once!"

Starscream saw that his troops were ready. "My armada is in position." He turned to Soundwave. "Open a ground bridge to the Harbinger."

There was a loud boom that was followed by the structure shaking.

Megatron saw several Autobot signals nearby on the scanner. "Since it would seem that Darkmount is under attack, kindly redirect all efforts toward ensuring that our invaders our eradicated!"

Outside...

"Fire in another hole!" Wheeljack said as he chucked another grenade at the citadel.

Several of the armored soldiers from the Brotherhood of Steel were using what functioned as crossbows, but launched small nuclear bombs at the tower.

Bulkhead, Wheeljack, and the Paladins(the armored soldiers) charged at the citadel.

The seekers took off from the Nemesis flight deck and flew at the attackers, firing their blasters.

Several of the BOS Paladins used miniguns that fired laser rounds to take out as many of the flyers as they could. Some just used regular laser guns that fired one shot at a time. Bulkhead used his plasma cannon to take out the seekers, with each shot able to take out one of the flyers. Wheeljack used his laser whip to take out three of the flyers in a single swing. He then switched to his regular blaster as he, Bulkhead and a couple of the BOS troops continued charging. They transformed, leaving the Brotherhood of Steel forces alone to fight the con's, which was a surprisingly even fight.

From a distance, a lone seeker watched the fight. Its shoulder was tapped by Bumblebee. He turned to find the black Autobot and Arcee standing behind him. Bumblebee punched his face in.

On the Nemesis...

"I assure you, master, I have everything under control." Megatron turned to face Starscream, and was very, very angry.

"Lord Megatron." Shockwave approached. "I accept that military considerations are outside of my domain, but perhaps it is once again time to release the Predacon."

Outside...

The Seekers retreated. The BOS Paladins looked around.

"What caused them to run off?" One of them asked.

There was growling heard. One of the Paladins used the scope on her laser rifle to see the Predacon crawling off of the Nemesis.

It extended its wings and took flight. As it flew towards the members of the Brotherhood of Steel and the Wreckers, the defenders of Earth opened fire on it, all of them taking shots at a single entity. One of the rockets that they fired hit.

Ultra Magnus' ship flew by. In it was the Autobot commander and Jack.

The ship flew up to try to lead the Predacon away from Darkmount.

"Ratchet, now!"

Ratchet opened a ground bridge, which sent the Predacon to the arctic, where it froze instantly.

"Oh well." Starscream said as the ground bridge that sent the predacon to the arctic closed. Shockwave walked off. "Yes, that's right. Go off and sulk, why don't you?"

Back at the Harbinger...

"Okay. Now that we've dealt with the Predacon, time to send in the big guy, if he's ready." Maxson turned to Azmuth.

"He is. Liberty Prime is ready for battle." The Galvan said.

"Good."

"Maxson, your super weapon will most likely be destroyed by the Decepticons' fusion cannons." Ratchet warned.

"I doubt it. Prime's armor is made of Adamant it converts energy attacks into power for his reactors."

"So basically, once Prime is fired up. The 'cons are gonna be crushed." Miko summarized.

"That's the gist of it. So who'd like to do the honors of throwing the on switch?" Maxson said. "Azmuth? You were the one who designed him"

"No, let Rafael do it, he helped you get him working."

"Good point." Maxson handed Raf the on button. "Let 'er rip Raf."

Raf pressed the green button. Liberty Prime's visor glowed blue.

"Liberty Prime is online. All systems nominal. Weapons hot. Mission: the destruction of any and all chinese invaders."

"Okay LP go and make your country proud!" Shouted Max as the forty foot tall atomic powered robot stepped off of the structure that had been used to access its systems.

"Now all we need is to get him to the battlefield." Gwen said.

Ratchet opened a ground bridge which Liberty Prime walked through.

Back at Darkmount...

Another ground bridge opened.

"Ultra Magnus to stealth team. Status repor- what the?!" From his ship, Ultra Magnus saw Liberty Prime enter the field of combat.

"Chinese fortress detected." It said with a booming voice. "Composition: Various unknown alloys. Defences: UAVs and four large energy weapons. Probability of Chinese victory, 0%."

Back in the caverns...

"Who stands before me?" Optimus, I think, asked.

Smokescreen was just as confused as I was. "What? It's me, Optimus. Smokescreen."

"Who beckons?" Optimus said as his optics flickered.

In a place that is not a place...

"Come, Optimus." Alpha Trion said.

"Is it truly you Alpha Trion?" Optimus was in disbelief.

The form of Alpha Trion appeared. "I stand before you, my student. As such, it would seem that it is your time." There was a look of uncertainty on Optimus' faceplate. "Why do you hesitate?"

"I do not fear joining with the Allspark, but for the fate of the Matrix of Leadership, and for that of the human race."

"You know as well as I, a worthy candidate is near. One who will learn to be a Prime, as you once did." Alpha Trion. "And as for humanity, their future is an uncertain one, but rest assured Optimus that it will be guarded."

Back at Darkmount...

As Ultra Magnus circled the citadel, Jack observed the giant robot that was firing blue lasers out of his head at seekers that were desperately trying to destroy it. From its back, it grabbed grenades that it flung at the fortress. They exploded with the force of nuclear bombs.

"Is that Liberty Prime?" Jack was in disbelief at how tough it was.

"We can ask questions if we survive. Right now, we have more important matters." The commander contacted Arcee. "Ultra Magnus to stealth team. Status report."

Inside...

"Having a little trouble reaching the objective." Arcee said as she dodge and Bumblebee took cover. "Security is tighter than anticipated, Sir."

"Keep them occupied. We have Liberty Prime on the outside keeping the decepticons occupied.

"How's he doing at that?"

A blue beam destroyed the 'cons that were firing at Arcee and Bumblebee.

"Nevermind."

Back with Ultra Magnus...

"Tennyson, now for our part of the plan, remember, your mission is to-"

"I know. I know, distract the 'cons by using Upgrade to take control of your ship, while you go in and take out the power generators." Jack said while Ultra Magnus got to the boarding ramp.

Ultra Magnus jumped off and ran across the platform that he had been dropped off on. He jumped and blasted a window and smashed through it. He shot the vehicon that had been behind it. He then took aim at the rest of the vehicons and destroyed them.

Ultra Magnus then took aim at the power core. Before he could fire, his path blaster was shot out of his hands by a red laser blast.

"Ultra Magnus." Vilgax dropped down from the ceiling. "Allow me to venture. You intend to disarm Darkmount's fusion cannons by disabling their power core."

"Indeed, Vilgax, and you are standing in my way." Ultra Magnus deployed his blasters and charged at Vilgax.

In the control room...

Starscream, Soundwave, and Knockout saw the beating Liberty Prime was giving the decepticon force.

"What on earth is that thing?!" Starscream asked in a panic

"Some new toy the humans have. Time to show them that ours are better." Knockout said as he prepped the fusion cannon. It charged up and unleashed a blast at Liberty Prime. Massive amounts of dust was thrown up when the beam hit. All present in the Decepticon control room were shocked when not only did the fusion cannon have no effect on this robot, it didn't even char its armor.

"What is that thing?!" Knockout demanded an answer.

Soundwave brought up a hologram of a satellite.

"Use the human's weapons against them, proceed Soundwave." Starscream ordered.

From high above, a satellite was hacked into by the Decepticon soundwave. It would deliver an orbital strike. Soundwave maneuvered it into position. He deployed one of the tungsten rods.

On the ground...

Liberty Prime stopped his attack of Darkmount when he detected something.

"Warning! Warning! Hostile Orbital Strike Imminent! All personnel should reach minimum safe distance immediately." Liberty Prime cautioned.

"Autobot, we must vacate the premises."

"You heard the metal man, let's get away."

Bulkhead and Wheeljack transformed. They drove as fast as they could away from Liberty Prime. The Paladins that were still alive ran away as well.

"Repeat: hostile orbital strike inbound! All U.S. Army personnel must vacate the area immediately! Protection protocols engaged!"

Seconds later, Liberty Prime was struck with at telephone sized rod of tungsten. He was down, but not out, although, there wasn't much time until he was out.

"Catastrophic... system... failure..." Liberty Prime became unsteady on his feet. "Initiating core shutdown as per emergency initiative 2682209..." He fell to his knees. He said with weakly: "I die, so that humanity may... live..." Liberty Prime was offline.

Shockwave, who had made his way to the ground, excited Darkmount and saw the defeated Liberty Prime.

The surviving BOS members, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack ran up to the cloud of dust that had been thrown up, but they were attacked by more decepticons.

Shockwave transformed into his tank mode and drove towards the attackers. He fire his cannon at the two Autobots. The blast knocked them away while killing several of the paladins.

When Shockwave got the the survivors, he transformed and walked towards them. "Your mission was most illogical."

Inside Darkmount...

The 'cons that were firing at Arcee and Bumblebee stopped shooting. When the two Autobots got out of their cover to see what had happened, a squad of vehicons ran up from behind them and held them at gunpoint.

"Scrap."

At the Harbinger...

A transmission came in.

"Elder Maxson. This is Paladin Danse."

"Report Paladin."

"Liberty Prime is down. The 'cons used a kinetic bombardment to take him out."

"Then all hope is lost." Azmuth said somberly.

Back at the power cores...

The Autobot commander continued his fight with the Chimera suis Generis warlord. Ultra Magnus shot at Vilgax, but the shots either missed or did no damage.

Ultra Magnus tried kicking at Vilgax's legs, but that seemed to only enrage the tyrant.

Having wasted enough time, Vilgax grabbed the barrel of one of Ultra Magnus' blasters and ripped it off before grabbing the commander by the shoulder pad and tossing him at the wall.

Vilgax approached the nearly defeated Autobot. Vilgax's cybernetics pumped the steroids that gave Vilgax the additional strength needed to punch Ultra Magnus' lights out. The knocked out Autobot fell to the floor. "Ultra Magnus." Vilgax had fought Optimus in the past, and was unimpressed with how pitiful the fight was. "You are no Optimus Prime."

Outside...

While Upgrade(who had taken control of Magnus' ship took out as many of the insecticons that he could, he was caught off guard when Megatron shot his engine, causing him to begin to crash. The ship lost its Galvanic mechamorph colors as Upgrade turned into Diamondhead. The ship crashed.

Diamondhead cut his way out of the ship before he passed out, reverting back to Jack.

Megatron landed near the Omnitrix user.

Sierra Army Depot...

"What in the name of Paul Revere's horse is taking them so long?!" Fowler frustratedly asked as he and the fighters were still on standby. [By the way, when Fowler said Paul Revere's horse, yeah, Paul Revere never owned a horse, so by the logic we are presented to by Fowler, nothing is taking them so long.]

Ultra Magnus was brought before Megatron. Jack was being held by a couple of Vilgax's humanoid drone. The teen had a gag in his mouth, however, he was still unconscious.

"All invaders have been taken captive, master." Starscream said. "There was no sign of Optimus Prime."

Megatron turned his attention to Ultra Magnus. "So tell me, Commander where might your leader be?"

At the edge of the Well of Allsparks...

"Take my hand, Optimus, and join me." Alpha Trion held out a hand for Optimus to grab. "Join with the Allspark."

Optimus however wasn't sure if this was the right course of actions.

Back in the caverns...

"Optimus, no!" Optimus' optics flickered before dimming. Optimus' chest panel opened, revealing the Matrix of Leadership. Smokescreen still didn't think he was worthy, maybe that, or he didn't want Optimus to go. "This isn't how the story's supposed to end." You got that right Smokescreen. The white Autobot placed the handle of the forge of Solus Prime into Optimus' hand, where it whirred to life.

Darkmount...

"I will not ask again!" Megatron said as he approached Ultra Magnus.

"If I knew, I wouldn't tell you."

"Very well." Vilgax deployed his sword. "Execute our prisoners, and fire each cannon at the nearest metropolis within its sites."

Vilgax noticed that Jack started to come to. Jack looked around and saw the two warlords, he tried to transform, but a painful shock of electricity was sent through him.

On the ground, a ground bridge opened and two of Vilgax's tripod drones walked out of it.

"What is the meaning of this?" Shockwave asked.

One of the drones responded. "Lord Vilgax demands that the one called Arcee be brought before him that that Tennyson may see her die in front of him."

"Very well."

The two drones grabbed Arcee's shoulders before hovering up and bringing her up to the throne 'room'.

Megatron saw the drones carrying Arcee. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Reports have shown that Jack is close to this Autobot. He shall watch as the life drains from her eyes."

Megatron grinned evilly. "You may do with her as you please. But as for the others, it is time to show the known universe - that this planet belongs to Megatron."

Vilgax grabbed Arcee. "Ahh!" Arcee screamed in agony as Vilgax applied pressure ot her head. "Jack! Help!" She saw Jack struggling to take get out of the grasp of the two drones, but when ever he transformed, he was revert back to being human.

Megatron was enjoying watching what Vilgax was doing to demoralize Jack.

"Oh just kill her already!" Starscream shouted. "I didn't take this long when I snuffed Cliffjumper."

"Shut up Starscream!" Jack, Vilgax, Megatron, the two humanoid drones, the two tripod drones, and Arcee shouted.

"But just crush her head already."

"Not... until... I see... Tennyson... break." Vilgax would keep this up for the rest of time if he had to.

While the Megatron enjoyed the show, Starscream noticed something approaching.

On the ground, Bumblebee saw it. He buzzed and pointed at the flying object.

"Master, something's coming!"

"The Predacon!"

"Not beasty enough." Starscream took a few steps back.

Vilgax loosened his grip on Arcee, but didn't let go of her. He looked in the direction of the UFO.

In the harbinger...

Ratchet picked up something.

"How is that possible?" Ratchet asked.

"What?" Gwen saw what was on the screen, but didn't know what was wrong with it.

"An Autobot signal. But it's airborne."

Back at Darkmount...

"I know that color scheme." The object got closer. It was Optimus, sporting a new, bulkier look that came equipped with a jet pack. "Wait! He can't fly! Can he?"

Optimus flew in. He punched Megatron square in the jaw, then delivered an uppercut. A final punch sent Megatron crashing into his throne, destroying it.

Optimus then deployed a minigun that he used to take out the Vehicons as well as the tripod drones.

Starscream stepped back fearfully, only to back up into Ultra Magnus, who delivered an uppercut that sent him flying.

"Commander?" Optimus couldn't believe that Ultra Magnus was on Earth.

"Sir, you're looking robust." The new Autobot SIC commented on Optimus' new appearance.

Optimus notice Vilgax holding Arcee by her head.

"One more step and Tennyson's partner, this 'Arcee' gets a one way ticket to oblivion."

"Vilgax." Optimus glared. He knew Vilgax would do what he'd say he'd do.

Jack refused to see Arcee get hurt. As he tried to transform, he continued to get shocked more and more, but suddenly, he transformed, not into one of his previously unlocked aliens, but into a new one. This new alien had black skin, a single green eye on its head. He had two long antennae on his head along with a tail. Both the tail and the antennae had what resembled plugs that seemed to be made out of copper on the end. He stuck his antennae into the two drones and drained their power. He removed the gag that had been placed in his mouth.

"Alright VilGeek, time to kick in up a notch." The new transformation generated a ball of electricity in his hands, which he shot at Vilgax, making him drop Arcee.

Megatron saw Jack's new transformation. He fired at it. The Conductoid(this alien's species) held out his hands and absorbed the energy from the shot. He shot it back at Megatron by using the plugs on his antennae.

"Thanks Jack." Arcee said as she rubbed her head. "What're you going to call this one?"

The conductoid thought it over. "I'll just see what kind of feedback Miko has with it. Wait, Feedback, that's it. This guy's Feedback."

"You may learn you new form's abilities later, but as for now, it is paramount that we disable the fusion cannons below."

"Understood." Optimus said. He deployed his battle mask. "Jack, get Arcee to Ratchet."

"Will do bossbot!" Feedback said to Optimus before the prime took off. "Arcee, think you could make yourself smaller?"

"Yeah." Arcee became human sized.

Feedback transformed into Four Arms, who grabbed Arcee and held onto her tightly as he jump off the edge of the platform.

Ultra Magnus informed the others that Optimus was back. "All units Optimus Prime has returned."

In the Harbinger, the other were expressing their jubilation.

Azmuth: Yes!

Miko: Awesome!

Ratchet: Thank the Allspark!

Raf: Sweet!

Sierra Army Depot...

"I repeat, Prime is alive and quite well." Ultra Magnus was heard over the comms.

"Yes!" Fowler got ready to launch.

Back at Darkmount...

Before Four Arms landed, he transformed into Big Chill. He got into Bumblebee's line of sight and nodded.

Bumblebee nodded to Bulkhead, who nodded to Wheeljack, who drew his swords and destroyed two of the 'cons while Bulkhead and Bumblebee destroyed the other two.

After setting Arcee down, Big Chill turned into Diamondhead and joined the others in rushing Shockwave.

Bulkhead hit the cyclopic 'con with his mace. Wheeljack side kicked him. Arcee and Bumblebee tried blasting him, but the scientist took anything they could throw at them. Diamondhead however, shot two crystals as the ground which grew into restraints that held Shockwave in place long enough for Diamondhead to deliver a devastating punch.

Diamondhead saw that Ultra Magnus, who thought his ship hadn't crashed, was about to jump off. He transformed into Way Big and caught him.

"Woah!" Wheeljack was in disbelief as he stood at the feet of the three hundred foot tall alien.

"Sorry about your ship, sir." Way Big said before he place Ultra Magnus with the others that we at his feet. He turned back into Jack.

"That was Way Big?" Arcee couldn't believe what she just saw.

"Yeah, pretty much."

Megatron saw Optimus fly by one of his fusion cannons. He transformed and flew at Optimus.

"Optimus!" Megatron shouted. He fired purple lasers at Optimus, who was trying to lose Megatron. One of Megatron's shots hit Optimus, who, in retaliation, fired his laser minigun at Megatron.

As Starscream went to the edge, he saw Optimus pursuing Megatron. He was contacted by one of the Vehicons.

"Commander, a cluster of enemy signals, incoming!"

"Humans. Activate the fusion cannons!"

Vehicons rushed into position as they attempted to fire on the human jets.

"Sky strikers, await my command." Fowler told the pilots of the other four jets.

During Optimus and Megatron's dogfight, Optimus boosted ahead, as did Megatron.

Optimus stopped and let Megatron fly at him. Megatron was punched by Optimus. who then grabbed onto his adversary. "Megatron, begone!" Optimus spun and threw Megatron into the fusion cannon control room, causing him to fly into the fuel cell.

The fusion cannons were destroyed.

Optimus flew off when he saw the human jets approach.

"Autobots, clear the area." Ultra Magnus ordered. He transformed into his alt mode, which was a Cybertronian truck and drove away.

Jack turned into XLR8 and sped off as well. The rest of the Autobots transformed and got away.

"Let's do this." Fowler said before his jet and the others fired two missiles each at Darkmount.

The explosions that were created by the jets was big. But, Darkmount was unharmed.

"What?!" Fowler couldn't believe it. [In the original episode, the military destroys Darkmount, but if they could take down a decepticon fortress with only ten missiles, why did Optimus not want military involvement? So yeah, the fortress isn't going to be taken down by the military.]

"But how?" Arcee said after she got to a safe distance.

"Cybertronian metals can't be harmed by most human weapons. But I know who can take the tower down. XLR8 said. He transformed once again into Way Big.

Way Big walked towards Darkmount.

"What is that?!" Starscream asked a he saw Way Big approach Darkmount.

"A To'kustar." Vilgax said. He approached Starscream. "Tell Megatron, our alliance is through." VIlgax disappeared in a flash of red light.

Way Big punched Darkmount, his sheer strength piercing the fortress. He punched it again and again, causing Darkmount to shake. It started to come crashing down.

As Way Big walked away, Shockwave contacted Soundwave. "Soundwave, I require a ground bridge." The portal opened. Shockwave walked through it.

Starscream ran to the Fusion Cannon control room and found Megatron. He let out a pitiful sigh when he saw the state his leader was in. "Transport Lord Megatron to the warship."

Two Vehicons grabbed Megatron.

"What are you doing? No! We will not retreat!" Megatron refused to accept defeat.

"This battle is lost, my liege." Starscream said. "We must retreat if we are to have any hope of winning the war."

Smokescreen drove down the abandoned highway. He transformed and saw the smoking wreck that was Darkmount, as well as the massive To'kustar that had caused it.

"Aw, I missed it!" He expressed his frustration on being tardy to the party.

Later, Unit:E hanger...

The Autobots, Azmuth, the Tennysons, Kevin, Miko, Raf, and whatever Paladins survived were being given a speech by Fowler.

"On behalf of the President and the joint chiefs, I thank you all for your selfless heroism in defense of this planet." Fowler said. "I'm only sorry the world can't know of your undying dedication, because I, for one, owe you my life, my liberty, and my future." Fowler saluted those present.

"Sir, I am honored to relinquish command of the Autobots to you."

"Welcome to Earth, Ultra Magnus. And to team Prime."

Miko ran up to Optimus. "Okay, someone's gotta say it. Optimus 2.0 is rad!" She then turned to Ratchet. "Imagine what the forge could do for your bod."

"Is it true that the Forge has been drained of its power?" Ratchet asked Smokescreen, who gave no answer. "Then any hope of rebuilding the Omega lock has truly been lost."

"I did what I felt was right." Smokescreen said.

"And your instincts have again proven to be quite sound." Ratchet patted Smokescreen on the back.

Chapter end.


	44. Jack vs Malware

The following takes place five weeks after the end of chapter 48(much like how chapter 25 took place two weeks in the past), so only extremely minor spoilers.

Galvan Prime, five weeks in the future...

While Azmuth and his assistant were working on some sorta black and green pyramid that had the same pattern as a Galvanic Mechamorph, June could be heard in the hall outside. It did not sound like she was in a good mood.

They looked at the door for a second before getting back to their work, typing faster on their green tablet like devices.

The doors opened. June had several Galvan trying in vain to hold her back. "Azmuth, I can't take it any more!" June shook the Galvan off of her. "You got to do something about Jack."

"As you can see, I'm exceedingly busy." Azmuth said without even looking at June. "Albedo, modify power cycles."

"I made an appointment. I made ten!" June walked through the door, hitting her head on part of the Omnitrix dial shaped door. "You promised but you keep postponing."

Albedo was thinking he could talk down to June. "First Thinker Azmuth has told you he's busy human. Accept it." This will not be the last time he talks down to a member of the Tennyson family.

June stepped towards Azmuth and Albedo, her foot landing inches from the latter. She cast as shadow on Albedo, causing the Galvan to flinch in fear.

"Accept this." She bent down towards Albedo. "One of you is helping me with the Jack situation, now."

"Low priority. Come back in two years." Azmuth shooed June away.

XLR8 zoomed into the lab. "Woah! What's this?" He looked a device that looked like the Vader's meditation chamber. "What's that do?" He asked about a device that looked like an oversized microscope. He tried to lift up what looked like the teleportation pod from The Fly. "Woah that's heavy." He then looked over his shoulder and saw something else. He zipped off. "What's that? Neat!"

Miko and Raf came running into the lab.

"I thought I told you kids and Jack to wait in the skipper." A frustrated June said.

"Ms Ten, we tried, but Jack was all 'I gotta see the lab. I gotta see the lab!'" Miko said.

"Plus, he got out right when you left." Raf added.

"This place is awesome!" XLR8 exclaimed after zipping in behind Miko and Raf. "Did you see that hoola hoop thing that makes lightning?!" XLR8 zoomed off again.

June shook her head. She sat down and turned to face Azmuth. "This is what we've been dealing with. The Omnitrix is malfunctioning. Jack's been trapped as a different alien every week."

"Not my concern."

"The 'bots and I haven't slept for a month."

Something exploded.

"Hey!" Azmuth realized that XLR8 destroyed something important.

"Whoops. Sorry." Apologized XLR8, who was standing in front of what appeared to be a shattered plasma globe. He had an awkward smile on his face.

"Not so funny when he's messing with your stuff, is it?" June asked.

Azmuth sighed. "Very well." He walked over to XLR8. He climbed up his legs and torso and got to the Omnitrix dial. He slammed it down with his fist. XLR8 went back to being Jack.

"Aw man. And I was having a lot of fun." Jack pouted.

"Oh thank goodness." June sighed.

"Been so long, I almost forgot what you look like doofus." Miko mocked.

"Miko, I wouldn't be talking, you were the one who caused this." Raf said.

Later...

June sat Jack on a bench like he was a kid. "I can't believe I have to tell you this, but sit quietly." She ordered. "I need to have a word with Azmuth." She turned to Raf. "Raf, watch him."

"I'm in charge? Score!" Raf was very glad that Jack's mom made him the one that was in charge this time around. June went back into the lab.

"Nice going there doofus." Miko mocked as Jack looked out a window.

A small asteroid entered the atmosphere of Galvan Prime.

In the nearby swamp...

The asteroid crashed in the water of the swamp. Seconds later, something rose out of the water. It was a galvanic mechamorph, but instead of the normal ones like Upgrade, this one yellow and black and had an almost skeletal appearance.

A Galvan sentry with black and green armor flew over over to the galvanic mechamorph. He held up his hand to signal stop while saying: "You, Galvanic Mechamorph subspecies, you are forbidden to enter the city." He pointed at the Mechamorph. "You're to stay on Galvan-B until - ung!" The Galvanic Mechamorph grabbed the tiny being that had tried to order it around. The Galvan's armor turned to dust as the Mechamorph's hand had more circuitry patterns on it.

The yellow and black Galvanic Mechamorph grew wings that had thrusters on them before saying. "I am not a subspecies." He had a voice that sounded half electric, half 'organic'. He dropped the Galvan into the swamp. Thrusters that formed in his feet allowed him to take off.

"Alert! Galvanic Mechamorph subspecies approaching city." The sentry said into his wrist communicator.

Back in the city...

The Mechamorph landed in the commons area of the Galvan city. As he walked past several of the mushroom shaped buildings, he scratched his claws on them, causing the to explode- wait, what?

From where Jack was sitting outside of Azmuth's lab, he could hear the explosions that were being caused.

"Woah, what's going on out there?" Asked Jack as he turned to look out of the window that was behind him.

"Don't even think about it." Miko warned. [FYI, Miko and Jack are acting out of character because when the Omnitrix got Jack stuck as different aliens, part of Jack's DNA got mixed in with Miko's, and a bit of Miko's got mixed in with Jack's, resulting in them exhibiting personality traits of the other.] "You heard what your mom said." As Miko chewed Jack out, Jack saw several of the buildings explode. "Besides, it's probably just alien mardi gras or something."

"You think?" Asked an excited Jack. "Like a carnival? Or a parade?" Jack activated the Omnitrix and selected Feedback. "Anything's gotta be more fun than just sitting here."

"I am so telling your mom." Miko said.

"Than this better be worth it." Feedback said before opening up the window and jumping out.

"Is this what it's like to be around me?" Miko asked.

"Pretty much." Raf said as and Miko watched Feedback head towards what to them was an unknown event.

Back in the city...

The black and yellow Mechamorph was smashing up buildings like a monster in a Kaiju movie, or a mecha in a sentai show. He was kicking smaller structures. He was going to crush a female galvan and what was most likely her son beneath his foot, if he hadn't been zapped by Feedback, who was being back up by several Galvan soldiers.

Feedback fired another beam of lightning at the Mechamorph, hurting it.

Back outside of the lab...

The door opened and June walked out. She didn't realize that Jacked wasn't there until after she said: "Come on kids, let's go home." June said. She then turned her head and saw that Jack was nowhere to be found. "Raf, Miko, where's Jack?" June asked, rubbing her head as she did so.

"I told him not to go." Miko said.

Back in the city...

While Feedback and the Mechamorph were fighting, the Galvan soldiers were shooting at the Mechamorph. Feedback's arms were grabbed by the Mechamorph, but the Conductoid got out of its grasp and punched its chin, sending it back, which made the Mechamorph crash into a building.

The Mechamorph grabbed a chunk of the building that it was thrown into. It said: "Azmuth! I am coming for you!" It took aim at Feedback and tossed the rubble at the alien.

Feedback held out his fist and punched the thrown debris, breaking it apart. He said smugly: "You are so not." Feedback jumped up. He held his hands together and fired a stream of electricity at the Mechamorph. That attack threw up a lot of dust. When Feedback landed on the ground, he was caught off guards, and when the dust settled, the Mechamorph could be seen holding the Conductoid in a chokehold.

"The Omnitrix! I want it!" The Mechamorph reached for the dial on the white stripe that was on Feedback's chest. He tapped the dial.

"You and everybody else dude. Take a number." Feedback said as the Omnitrix dial started to spark. He used the plug on the end of his tail to zap the back of the neck of the Mechamorph, who winced in pain and let got of Feedback, allowing the conductoid to toss him over his head and a short distance away.

The road was torn up when the Mechamorph landed. Feedback ran up to the Mechamorph. He jumped, electricity arcing through his fist. When he came down, he shouted: "Feedback, den punch!" Which when the punch connected, sent both Feedback and the Mechamorph down the street, tearing up more of it.

With the Mechamorph incapacitated, Feedback held his hand on the Mechamorph's chest, energy being drawn out of the Mechamorph and into Feedback. "I'll take that energy thankyou. I don't call this guy feed back for nothing."

There was a weird whirring sound. It caused the Omnitrix to time out, reverting Feedback back to Jack.

Jack was tossed back. He landed on his stomach. As he got up, he rubbed his head. Jack looked at the mechamorph. The yellow lines were now dark yellow, but second later, they went back to being lightning bolt yellow.

"Scrap." Jack said. He saw the Omnitrix had recharged already. He activated it and selected an alien. He became Four Arms. "Okay, was going for Diamondhead, but this'll do." Four Arms got into a fighting stance before running at the Mechamorph, who had gotten back up and charged at the Tetramand.

Four Arms punched the mechamorph twice before he himself was struck once. The Mechamorph followed the punch by clawing at Four Arms' chest, tearing his suit slightly.

Four Arms ran at the Mechamorph, slamming into it and ramming him into, not one, but four separate buildings. Four Arms grabbed the downed Mechamorph by the shin and the arm. He spun around before throwing him at the tallest building in the city, which was the one that contained Azmuth' lab.

The Mechamorph landed on the first floor. Four Arms jumped over to see if the Mechamorph was finally out. Four Arms entered the building through the hole that he made he walked over to the Mechamorph, but was shot at by a yellow laser beam that the Mechamorph fired out of his crescent moon shaped eye.

Four Arms was sent up four floors, and ended up getting stuck in the floor of Azmuth's lab.

"Jack!" Miko and Raf shouted as they ran up to their friend.

"I can take him, just need to rest for a second." Four Arms closed his eyes.

Moments later, the door to the lab was ripped open by the Mechamorph. "Azmuth!" He yelled as he walked into the lab, passing by the kids and Four Arms as the Omnitrix timed out. As he walked towards the First Thinker, Albedo and June ran at the Mechamorph. He tossed both of them to the side.

Jack climbed out of the hole that he had made as Four Arms.

"Malware, this is not the way." Azmuth cautioned the Mechamorph named 'Malware'.

"You promised me an upgrade!" Malware pointed an accusing finger at Azmuth. "You said you would make me like the others!"

"You condition is complex. It has taken more time than I anticipated to-"

Malware got his head right in front of Azmuth before shouting: "No! No more time! I've had enough of you lies!"

Albedo stood up and got attention drawn to himself. "How dare you speak to Azmuth that way! He has been working tirelessly to create a secondary helix, specifically to treat you." Albedo pointed to the pyramid, getting Malware to look in that direction. As Albedo spoke, Azmuth was tell him to quit talking by waving his arms.

"Give it to me! Now!" He demanded.

"Ha ha ha ha!" Albedo laughed at Malware(this certainly won't be the last time Albedo laughs at someone who's stronger than he is.) "A creature of your low intellect could never understand its workings well enough to operated it."

Malware roared in frustration as he extended his neck and brought it over to Albedo, who whimpered.

"The second helix is not finished." Azmuth said, causing Malware to turn his head slightly. "To use it in its uncompleted form could cause untold destruction. I need more time to help you."

Malware retracted his neck. "No! Your time is up!" Malware grabbed the Helix with several tendrils that he generated from his torso and used them to grab it. He placed the Helix into a compartment in his chest. He extended his arm and grabbed Albedo, who he stored in his hand. He extended his jetpack wings and took off, breaking through the green tinted glass dome.

"So, friend of yours?" Jack asked after Malware flew too far away to be seen. Azmuth looked at Jack with crossed arms.

Soon...

Jack, Miko, Raf, June, and Azmuth ran out of the building that had been torn apart slightly. They looked up and saw the moon of Galvan Prime, Galvan-B, which had the same pattern as most Galvanic Mechamorphs.

"This is hopeless!" Miko yelled. "This Malware guy few off the planet, he could be anywhere."

"Not necessarily." June corrected. "As far as we know, he doesn't have FTL capability."

"Great!" Jack then asked. "What's FTL stand for again?"

"Faster than light." Raf explained.

"Thanks. And that's good because?"

"Because he can't have left the Galvan system, yet." June said as she ran to a spaceship that looked like a green and white boat with small wing like thrusters. June climbed up the steps to get onboard the ship. "Which means we can track him, if we're lucky."

"We don't need luck." Azmuth said. "He's heading for the moon, Galvan-B."

"And you know this how?" Jack asked.

"That's a long story."

"Tell it on the way." June said. "Get in. You too Jack."

Jack bent down and picked up Azmuth. He climbed up the steps with Azmuth slung over his shoulder.

Jack put him in one of the four seats. A computerized voice said: "Galactic Infant Restraints engaged." Azmuth was raised up as three cushions inflated, keeping Azmuth secure. He had a glare of frustration. Miko snickered as he looked into the ship.

"Can I come?" Miko asked after she stopped snickering.

"Sorry Miko, you and Raf have stay on Galvan Prime."

"What? Why? The Skipper sits four." Miko complained.

"It might get too dangerous for you two." June said as she closed the hatch,

Miko and Raf watched the Skipper take off. While the ship was in transit, Azmuth began his explanation. "Galvan-B was much like the Earth's moon, miles of dead rock, no atmosphere, no day or night."

"Sounds worse than Cybertron." Jack said as he looked at the black and green moon of Galvan Prime.

"It was the perfect environment to conduct a planet wide experiment. A place upon which life could thrive."

Many years ago...

A younger Azmuth, who wore a green space suit, entered a small structure that resembled an unfinished pyramid. It was a Helix much like the one that present day Azmuth had made. Azmuth adjusted some of of the switches and knobs.

The Helix glowed, which was followed by it unleashing a wave of green energy all around the moon, which turned the surface black and green. The younger Azmuth removed his helmet after the scanners showed that he could breath.

"The results were beyond anything I could've hoped for, not only was Galvan-B inhabitable, but-" Azmuth's narration was interrupted by Jack.

"Uhg, there's always a but with you. You're sure you're as smart as you think?" Jack asked.

Azmuth was about to cut a black and green flower with a buzzsaw with a green blade.

"Smarter. But, there was an unforeseen consequence."

The flower bent to avoid being cut. It then grabbed onto the buzzsaw and turned into some kinda death machine with four bladed saws instead of wheels.

A blob of black and green goo rose out of the ground behind Azmuth, who was startled.

"My experiment had inadvertently prompted the creation of a brand new, technorganic species, the Galvanic Mechamorphs."

Azmuth looked around, in awe of what he had created on accident.

"We Galvan had no right to colonize their world, instead, we gave it to them."

Several Mechamorphs ran to a rock. They turned it into a very futuristic looking building.

"With our help, they built an entire civilization in mere days." Azmuth explained. "They were peaceful new neighbors. My Helix experiment was a success beyond my wildest dreams, and a failure beyond my darkest nightmares."

As Azmuth prepared to shut the Helix off, a puddle of black and yellow goo seeped out of the base of it. It formed a hand, as if to reach out to ask for help. Azmuth ran out to see what happened. The goo formed into what is now known as Malware.

"Malware, an incomplete mechamorph, it's life code interrupted, corrupted during creation."

Malware reached for Azmuth's box of tools. He experience great pain.

"Malware, unlike all the others of his kind, Malware had the ability to not only mimic technology, it became him."

Malware fired yellow lasers out of his finger tips.

"But at a terrible price." Azmuth's tools were turned to dust.

Two Mechamorphs ran up to assist their creator. Malware extended his arm at one of them.

Present day...

"I have tried many times to help him." Azmuth explained as the Skipper entered the Atmosphere of Galvan-B. The Skipper flew over the surface of the moon. "To make him like the others, but Malware's condition is intriguingly complex, and his rather volatile nature makes it challenging."

"So let me get this straight, a dangerous tech vampire has been begging you to fix him for years and you told him you'd get 'around to it'?" Jack was kinda mad at Azmuth.

"You have no idea about the responsibilities I carry Jack Tennyson."

"Talk all you want, you buggered up and now you need my help to fix it."

"I don't know if it's that simple Jack." June cautioned.

A blue hologram of Raf appeared. "There you are."

"Ah!" Jack was started a bit. "Raf? How'd you do that?" Jack asked after he recovered from his mild shock.

"Just borrowing some of Azmuth's equipment." Raf said. "This stuff's better than what Ratchet has at the base."

"You can say that again." Jack agreed.

"Raf, you kinda called at a bad time. We need to focus right now." June said. "We have a potential disaster on our hands here."

Azmuth spoke up. "Indeed. I believe Malware is going to link the old Helix with the new one he stole, to try to rewrite his life code."

"Uh, you lost me. Isn't that what you were trying to do?"

"Yes, but not like this." Azmuth looked at Jack.

"They use different kinds of energy. If anything goes wrong, there's going to be a really big boom." Raf cautioned.

"That's bad right? Right?!" Jack asked.

Raf sighed. "I'll get to work on the anti Miko serum." The Raf hologram dissipated before shutting off.

The Skipper landed. Jack, June, and Azmuth climbed out of it. Around where they landed were a bunch of Mechamorphs that had been turned into husks.

"Are they, dead?" Jack asked as he walked through the Mechamorph graveyard.

"No, not yet." Azmuth clarified. "They've been corroded and withered nearly to the point of non-existence."

Jack shuddered in fear. He felt sorry for these guys.

"Can you help them?" June asked.

"Only if I act immediately. I need to use your ship's power supply if I am to save these Mechamorphs. As such, I'm afraid you two will have to face Malware without me."

"Good luck." June said to her friend as she ran to the skipper to get something. She lifted up the seat and got an ammo belt, as well as two blasters, one was a standard issue plumber rifle, the other was the Kabuto Kunai Gun. "We'll have to hit him hard and fast." She said to the Raf hologram.

"What can I do Ms Tennyson?" Raf asked.

"You can run the Skipper's systems remotely, help Azmuth." June turned and headed down the steps, but she turned to ask Raf: "Dare I ask what this anti Miko Serum is?"

"It's to get Miko's DNA out of Jack. School's starting in a few days, and I don't think the teachers would like it if Jack acted like Miko at random times."

"Fair enough. You know what to do?" June asked. Raf nodded yes. "Good, Jack and I will- Jack?"

"He ditched you, didn't he?" Raf asked.

June looked around and saw Jack walking through the Mechamorph graveyard. "Stop where you are Jack!" June shouted. "You can't just run in there guns blazing, we need a plan."

"Oh I got a plan. It's called hero time!" Jack activated the Omnitrix. He slammed down on the dial, transforming into Heatblast. "Oh yeah! Time to heat things up Malware!"

At the central spire...

"Do it!" Malware ordered as Albedo tried to connect the two Helixs. Heli? Helices? "I want my upgrade now!" He slammed his fist on the floor in anger. "Finish the Helix, rewrite my life code."

"It would help if you'd stop smashing everything in sight." Albedo said from within the first Helix. "Bringing me along was pretty smart, for you. Aside from Azmuth himself, I am the only Galvan with sufficient intelligence to-"

Malware brought his head to Albedo. "If you mention how smart you are, I will end you."

"Gotta say, I'm with you on that one." Heatblast said.

Malware turned to face the pyronite. "Do not interfere! This upgrade is my right!"

"But Azmuth says-" Heatblast was shot at by a yellow laser beam, which knocked him off his feet and tossed him away a bit.

"Azmuth says lots of things, but where is he now?"

Heatblast panted as he got up. "Right outside, trying to save the mechamorphs that you-"

Malware let out what could only be described as a combination of a hiss, a growl, and a scream, I call it, the hrowlam. A word that I hope I never have to use again. "Of course he is!" Malware ran at Heatblast. "They are his perfect creations." Malware grabbed Heatblast and held him in one of his clawed hands. He held Heatblast close to his 'face' "They deserve to be destroyed." Malware took Heatblast and slammed him into the ground repeatedly.

"I think you got that backwards!" Heatblast shot a stream of fire at Malware, but it was not very effective.

"Pathetic." Malware wouldn't bring himself down to laugh at Heatblast.

"I'm just warming up. Get it? Heatblast, warm?"

Malware was unamused. He raised one of his arms up and sharpened his fingers into blades that he was going to use to impale Heatblast.

However, before Malware could kill him, the Mechamorph was shot by a green laser bolt.

It was June, who was wearing an ammo belt, silver armor on her right arm, a plate of armor on her right shoulder, and a headset. "Keep away from my son!"

Heatblast got up and levitated a chunk of the ground and flew over to malware. He fired several flame blasts at the evil mechamorph, which had no effect on it. Malware just found this annoying more than anything else. He blasted a yellow eye beam at Heatblast, which the pyronite ducked to avoid being hit by. Heatblast then used the chuck of rock that he was on to try to smash Malware, but that was proven ineffective when Malware

June approached Albedo. "Stop fiddling with that thing. We're getting out, now."

"It's too late. If I don't complete the link with the primary helix, the secondary Helix will cycle out of control, destroying the moon with us on it." Albedo put a computer chip into the Helix. The green lines on the Helix turned red, as did the lines that were in the interior of this building. Aledo ran out of the Helix. The door closed when he exited it.

It emitted a red beam of energy that went up into the ceiling and out into the atmosphere.

As June shielded her eyes from the bright light, Albedo smugly said: "Even Azmuth couldn't have solved that, not under these conditions.

As Heatblast held Malware down, the Mechamorph saw what had happened. He reached over to the Helix and said: "At last I will be cured!" He grabbed two of the four red glowing rods that were around the Helix.

Malware was filled with newfound energy. He managed to kick Heatblast off of him. When the Pyronite landed, the Omnitrix timed out. June and Albedo ran up to Jack.

"Yes! It's working!" Malware got between the Helix and the others. "I can feel my life code changing!"

"Uh, am I crazy, or did he just win?" Jack asked.

Albedo knew something that Jack and June didn't. "Wait for it."

The yellow lines on Malware became red. He unleashed a red beam of energy. He started to overload, emitting a blinding light that Jack and June shielded their eyes from.

When the light was gone, so was Malware and the second Helix. "We won! We rule!"

"Jack, we got lucky." June corrected.

"He blew up, if that' not winning, then what is?"

"Ahem, actually, I was the one who defeated him." Albedo said. "By managing the power cycles of the two Helices, I caused an overload just as the Mechamorph touched the control rods. Top that, Omnitrix boy."

"You're really getting on my nerves."

A pile of rubble started to spark. Emerging from it stood a black and red being. It was Malware. Albedo was shocked that Malware survive. June aimed her blaster at Malware.

"Upgrade, complete." Malware said. His current form looked similar to Upgrade, but had a pointed head, a yellow four pointed star on his face, and clawed hands. "I am complete!"

"You have what you wanted, now you're like the rest of the Mechamorphs!"

Malware laughed at what Albedo said. "What I am now is so much more than they, I am superior!"

"Oh great." Jack rolled his eyes. "It's time for his evil speech of evil."

"Evil? No. Visionary!" Malware began to explain. "I feel power building inside me. I see the world that only I can create. It was Azmuth who thought me flawed, he gave me the name malware." He reached over and grabbed June's rifle. "But I am not the flawed one." Malware absorbed the gun into his body. "It is all the rest that are inferior. They bend and stretch, mimic and manipulate only what others have created. I do not Upgrade other's creations." Malwaref formed his right arm into a blaster. "They upgrade me!" He pointed his blaster arm at Jack, June, and Albedo. "And I will upgrade myself with Azmuth's greatest creation."

Jack took a look at the Omnitrix before saying: "Dude, I can't even begin to tell you how much none of that is going to happen." Jack activated the Omnitrix and turned into Cannonbolt.

Malware fired at the trio, but Cannonbolt got himself and the other two out of the way.

"Accept the inevitable." Malware said.

June picked up Albedo and got out of there.

Cannonbolt rolled up into a ball and rolled at Malware, the Mechamorph began firing at the armored alien, but all his shots missed.

Cannonbolt rolled up towards the wall and up to the ceiling. The shots that Malware fired caused debris to fall on him.

"Jack, break off! This whole place is going to come down!" June shouted.

"Don't worry mom! I got a plan, I can do this!" Cannonbolt told June.

"Can he?" Albedo asked from June's arms.

"He always surprises me." June admitted.

As Cannonbolt continued to roll around Malware, shot after shot taken by the Mechamorph missed, until on hit, send Cannonbolt into the wall.

Malware walked over to Cannonbolt, he held the alien's arms down. He reach for the Omnitrix with a third arm that he grew from his torso and tried to rip it off.

"Why do you struggle?" Malware asked. "In a mere moment, I will access all the codes, and the device will be mine!"

"You know how many bad guys have said that to me?" Cannonbolt asked the Mechamorph. "All of them!" The Omnitrix timed out, reverting Cannonbolt back to Jack. "And guess who's still got it?"

Jack ran off, now out of Malware's grasp. "I've had enough!" Malware shot the ceiling above Jack, causing a pile of rubble to fall on him. "Now it's mine!" Malware walked over to the pile of rubble and began to search through it for Jack's either dead or dying body.

However, neither was the case, as Diamondhead rose out from the debris.

"Don't you get tired of being wrong?" Asked the petrosapien.

Malware tried to shoot the petrosapien, but his laser had no effect. Diamondhead punched Malware in the face several times, the last punch sending him through the first Helix. Malware fired at Diamondhead, who jumped to avoid being hit by it. While in the air, Diamondhead fired a few dozen crystal shards at Malware, who fired his blaster arm at Diamondhead as he came back down. Diamondhead then grabbed Malware's arms.

"Give up Malware!" Diamondhead shouted. "Only one of us is walking away from this!"

"You are right about that." Malware generated a blaster in his torso.

"Oh crap." Diamondhead forgot he could do that. He was shot at by Malware and was forced back.

As Diamondhead tried to get up, Malware held him down, the Mechamorph grabbing onto the Omnitrix. "Say goodbye little human."

Diamondhead realized something. "You can't get through crystal, can you?" Diamondhead grew a patch of crystal on his chest around where the Omnitrix dial was.

"No!" Malware refused to accept defeat. His feet had been encased in crystal. "Stop!" Next his torso. "You can't!" Then his left arm, followed by his right arm. All that was left not covered by Diamondhead crystal was his head, which allowed him to speak. "You haven't won yet! I will be free again! And when I am, all the Galvan system, all the Universe-" Diamondhead covered up Malware's head.

The Omnitrix timed out. "Will thank me for shutting you up." Jack said before he ran to June and Albedo.

"Good work Jack." June patted her son on the back.

"Told you my plan would work, my plans almost always work."

"Isn't it always the same plan?"

"Hey, if it's not broken, don't fix it."

Later...

Jack, June, Miko, and Raf were in the skipper, ready to take off.

"Goodbye Tennysons, thank you for not destroying everything."

The four that were in the boat shaped spaceship waved as the door closed.

"I just saved two more planets." Jack said, now back to normal.

"You actually save one planet and a moon." Raf corrected.

"Don't give me the specifics."

"So what? Raf helped Azmuth save all those other Mechamorphs." Miko added. She too was back to normal.

"Great job Raf. Maybe one day you could be Azmuth's assistant." Jack said, rubbing Raf's head in a brotherly way.

Everything from here to the end of the chapter takes place three and a half years in the future, but surprisingly, no spoilers.

The green skinned alien bounty hunter known as Khyber had found what he had been looking for.

"This has been, illuminating." He pressed a button on the Plumber archives. "Copy helix files. Copy all files. Designate, Jack Tennyson." He then heard someone's voice coming from down the hall.

"I am so done being your lab rat." A twenty year old Jack Tennyson complained.

Khyber removed the flash drive.

"Blukic is the one who crossed the polarities." Driba defended as he, another Galvan, and Jack walked down the hallway. Jack, who besides wearing different cloths and was an inch or two taller, hadn't changed much in three and a half years.(Whereas someone like Raf, well, he's another story.)

"Well you're the one who set his pants on fire." Blukic said.

"Liar liar."

Blukic found that funny and laughed.

Khyber poked his head out into the hall after Jack and the two Galvan passed.

"Seriously, you guys are worse than Azmuth." Jack stated.

"Of course we are." Blukic responded. "Everyone is."

Driba continued. "That Galvan's a genius."

Later...

Khyber made his way out of the base without conflict. His loyal hound had been waiting for him.

"We have everything we need now, boy." He said, placing his clawed armored hand on the dog's head. No secrets are safe."

As they began to make their way to Khyber's ship, something strange happened. Khyber, his dog, and, well, the whole entire planet stopped moving, or, more accurately, the world slowed down to a crawl, but people were aware of it.

"What is going on?!" Khyber had never experienced a phenomenon like this before.

The Global Freeze had begun. The world was going to end. Or was it? Oh well, I guess some surprises need to be reached with a drive.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. Well, here's the first chapter of Omniverse. BTW, Omniverse(or Alien Force and Ultimate Alien for that matter) aren't going to be referred to by their Ben 10 show names. Omniverse might be called Transformers Power of Ten Beyond Prime. And as to why I used an episode of Omniverse in Power of Ten, well, Omniverse isn't going to have whole chapters based around flashbacks(well, only one, but that's a different story), so I might as well tell this chapter where it makes some semblance of sense.
> 
> And yes, the global freeze that happened at the end of the chapter is the same Global Freeze that happened in a certain show.
> 
> And for those who want a time frame, if the Global Freeze had happened in the normal Ben 10 universe, it would've started roughly two seconds after the screen turned to black at the end of the episode. You'll never believe who the guy that stops it is.(It's not anyone we've introduced yet).
> 
> Here's a mystery to pass the time: Proto Drive might have been Chase in the show, but in Beyond Prime, he'll be someone's bro.


	45. A Change of Face

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-chapter Author's note: This chapter's gonna have a few suggestive jokes. Reader discretion is advised.

Salem Massachusetts...

Jack Tennyson, Gwen Tennyson, and Agent William Fowler were in one of America's oldest cities(fun fact, it's the thirteenth oldest in the US).

"Thanks for taking us to Salem Agent Fowler." Gwen said.

"I wanted to go to concord." Jack said under his breath as he and the others walked down the city streets.

"Don't mention it. It's the least I can do for you two." Fowler patted the two teens on the back. "So, where to first?"

"There's this Museum of Witchcraft. Would it be okay if we went there?"

"Don't see why not?"

Jack reluctantly followed the government agent and his cousin. Jack has less than fond memories of this city. See, when he was ten, he came here with Gwen and Max. Max had somehow convinced him and Gwen to dress up in clothing from the 1600s, which drew a lot of unwanted attention to him. It was the most embarrassing day of his life up until that point. Thankfully, Fowler, who had offered to take him and Gwen on a day trip, hadn't made them dress up.

"So what's in the museum of witchcraft? Magical items? Spell books?" Fowler asked.

"Among other things."

"Shouldn't we stay away from stuff like that?" Jack asked.

"Why? Oh, are you afraid?" Gwen asked.

"No, it's just that whenever we do something related to magic, something bad happens."

"Really?" Fowler asked. "Like what?"

There was an explosion a few blocks away from where the trio was. "Like that."

Fowler had a dumbfounded looked. A few moments later, he asked: "Should we do something about that?"

"Don't you know who we are?" Jack asked as he ran into an alley." He activated the Omnitrix and turned into Stinkfly, who then took off and flew towards the burning building.

At the sight of the explosion, one could see Charmcaster walking out of a cloud of smoke.

"Ahh. I love being a witch." The white haired sorceress said with a slight grin on her face.

When Stinkfly got over to the burning building, he sprayed goo at the flames that were blocking the door to another building, freeing the people who were trapped by the spreading blaze.

Charmcaster heard the fluttering of insect wings. She jumped off of the building that had exploded and found Stinkfly putting out as many of the fires as he could.

She threw several stone spheres at the ground, creating more flames that caught Stinkfly's attention.

"That's it. Closer." She grinned evilly as Jack went towards her hot trap(Bow chicka bow wow). "Come into my parlor said to spider to the Stinkfly."

Stinkfly extinguished the flames that were on the road. He then flew up and took care of the ones that were on the buildings. When he landed, he took a look at his reflection smiled. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone he recognized, and not in a good way.

"Charmcaster!" Stinkfly hissed/buzzed.

Charmcaster took no note of Stinkfly's anger. She wave her hand in a circle while saying: "Transfera identica. Transfera identica." A purple orb formed around her. She waved her hand, flinging a smaller orb at Stinkfly, who flew to try to avoid it, however, he couldn't fly fast enough to get away.

"I feel kind weird." Stinkfly said from within the orb.

Meanwhile, Gwen was trying to calm down a horse that had been spooked by the flames. "Easy boy." Gwen said as the horse reared up on it's hind legs. When it had all four hooves on the ground, it ran away, but Gwen managed to grab onto the carriage that it was pulling. She eventually got in the carriage and was holding onto the reins, but she didn't know how to make the horse stop. She went down the street and went towards Charmcaster, passing her and heading towards the orb that Stinkfly was in.

The horse suddenly turned, throwing her out of the carriage, hitting Stinkfly and knocking him out of the orb. Gwen took Stinkfly's place as the orb moved closer to Charmcaster.

"No! Not you!" Charmcaster's plan had failed. The two orbs merged, as did Charmcaster and Gwen. There was a flash of light, which was followed by the two magic user getting thrown a ways away from each other.

Stinkfly got up and shook his head. "I wonder what that was?" He asked himself. He heard the horse that Gwen had tried to control run down the street that he had his back turned then flew after the horse.

Charmcaster groaned as she got up, but something was wrong. She looked at her reflection in a piece of broken glass. "Charmcaster!" Gwencaster(Gwen in Charmcaster's body) was shocked. She jumped and got in a combat stance. Gwencaster looked around and found that she was alone. She looked in the glass of the broken window and made various faces and posed in several different ways, and found that the reflection did the same things that she did.

Charmen(Charmcaster in Gwen's body) looked around a corner and saw her own body making a fool of herself. She started to panic when she realized that it wasn't Jack in her body(oh god that sounded wrong), but rather, it was Gwen. In her panic, Charmen fell over.

It took Gwen's mind precisely twelve seconds to realize that she was in Charmcaster's body. "Ah! It's me!" She grabbed her white hair and pulled it. "What's happening?" She asked as she heard the ney of a horse.

Stinkfly flew around the corner, guiding the horse, while Fowler sat in the carriage, using the reins to keep the horse steady.

"Jack! Fowler!" Gwencaster ran in the direction of the horse that was being guided by the alien and the government agent. [That is the single strangest sentence I have ever written. If I write something stranger in a future chapter, I'll be sure to bring this line up.]

Charmen saw that Gwencaster was heading towards the others. "Oh no you don't! You're not going to ruin my plans this time ms goody goody!" Charmen had purple aura around her. She flew ahead of Gwencaster and got to the others before Gwencaster could. "Nuh uh." Charmen shook her finger before punching Gwen into a tree.

The Omnitrix timed out, reverting Stinkfly back to Jack, who landed on the horse that he and Fowler had managed to get back under control. They ran over to Charmen, who they thought was Gwen.

"Gwen what in the name of Abe Lincoln's beard is going on?" Asked Fowler.

"It's Charmcaster." Charmen said awkwardly, due to Charmcaster not being used to talking in the third person. "She must've been behind this whole thing."

Gwencaster walked up to Charmen and said to her cousin and their 'friend': "Wait, I'm not-" Gwencaster was hit by Charmen.

Jack and Fowler shot each other confused looks.

"Uh, don't want her reciting a spell that'll turn us all into weasels or something. No telling what could come out of her mouth."

Fowler shrugged before putting handcuffs on Gwencaster.

"Agent Fowler, what're you doing?" Jack asked. "And why do you have handcuffs with you?"

"I have orders from General Bryce relating to Charmcaster. I've been told that she's to be locked up in Bellwood."

"Why not keep her in this state? She's far less likely to attack us from here if she breaks out." Charmen added.

"True, but Bryce wants to minimize collateral damage, so he wants her to be in a place near you two."

"Fair enough." Jack said as Fowler put a blindfold on Gwencaster. "But what's with the blindfold? She already knows about Arcee, so what's seven more alien robots?"

"Really?"

"Yes really."

Later, underneath the Unit:E hanger(AKA, Autobot base)...

Jack, Fowler, Charmen, and a restrained Gwencaster entered the base. Ratchet was operating the ground bridge, which the four entered through.

Miko saw who was with her friends and the government agent. "Woah, who's that?"

"Charmcaster. Sorceress, pain in the aft, Hex's niece, et cetera." Arcee listed what Charmcaster was to her. She shrank down to human sized. "And on top of that, a bitch." She pulled out a few of Gwencaster's white hairs. Gwencaster groaned, but it was muffled by the duct tape that was on her mouth

"But why is she restrained?" Ultra Magnus asked. "She clearly poses no threat."

"If she could speak she'd probably try to convince you to help her escape." Charmen explained.

"But why bring her to the base?" Smokescreen asked. 'She's kinda hot.' He thought. Little did he know that Charmen heard this while she was reading the thoughts of the Autobots.

"We needed to transport her to the prison that she's going to be held in, which just so happens to be located near Bellwood."

Charmen looked around at the Autobots. She thought Arcee was big, but then she saw Optimus. If she wasn't trying to get the Omnitrix from Jack, she'd be trying to get her mind into his body.

Later...

Charmen, Fowler, Jack, and Gwen were escorting Gwencaster to the prison that was going to hold her, Bellwood penitentiary, a women's prison.

As Gwencaster was hauled off, Charmen waved goodbye. She said to herself: "Don't worry Gwen I'll take care of your family," She glanced over her shoulder. "and that watch."

Outside...

The Rust Bucket was waiting outside for Jack and Charmen. Fowler had left in his car, he had some paperwork to do. June was inside the Rust Bucket looking for the tire repair kit. Jack and Charmen meanwhile had gotten into a conversation about the Omnitrix.

"So, once you've dialed in the alien you want, you just slam it back down and you're ready to kick butt?"

"Yeah, but you know that." Jack said, not noticing that there was something wrong with Gwen. "And since when are you interested in the Omnitrix?" Jack asked. "You're always reading about magic and spells and mysticism."

Charmen had a devious smile on her face. "I think I've learned all that I'm going to about that stuff. I'm just interested in what you're interested in."

Jack looked at the Omnitrix, and then back to Charmen. "No, that's not it." Jack said, feeling a bit creeped out. "You're setting me up to be punked somehow." Jack walked off. "Well forget it, I'm too smart for whatever you and Miko have planned. Just leave me alone you freak."

Charmen growled in frustration. She ran over and knocked Jack over. She grabbed his right foot and started to twist it. "Nobody calls me a freak and gets away with it." Charmen hissed as she caused Jack quite a bit of pain.

"Ow! Ow!" Jack yelped. Charmen let go of Jack's leg. He got up and was half a foot from her face. "What is wrong with you?" Jack was furious with whom he still thought was Gwen.

"What on earth is going on out here?" June asked as she exited the Rust Bucket. She was brandishing a tire iron.

"Gwen flipped her orange wig, that's what's wrong." Jack said as he back up towards his mom.

"Jack's right, it was all my fault Aunt June." Charmen half lied. "I started it. I'm sorry Jack." She said in a rather polite voice. "Can you forgive me?"

"Did you hit your head or something?" June asked. "Gwen, is it your time of the month?" June asked.[To be fair, if I was an entity in this story, that'd be the, let's see... fourth question I'd ask if I knew Gwen on a personal level.]

"Mom?!" Jack couldn't believe that his mom would ask that.

"What? I'm just asking."

"It's not." Charmen said. "But how's about I make it up to you by cooking up something special. Just for you." She pointed at Jack.

Bellwood Penitentiary...

Gwencaster was tossed into a room with white floors and ceilings. "But I'm innocent!" She pleaded as the door that she was tossed through had closed behind her. "You have the wrong person." Gwencaster watched through the bulletproof glass that was in the metal door.

"Yeah, that's what they all say." The guard that locked Gwencaster up said as she walked down the hall of cells.

Gwencaster moped as she walked away from the door and sat at one of the tables. She held her head up with her hands. When her elbows were on the table, she felt something in her sleeve. She looked to see that there were several small brown and purple eggs that Charmcaster used in her attacks. She hid them when somebody spoke to her.

"So, what're you in for princess?" One of the inmates asked Gwencaster. She had reddish brown hair, black eyes and wore light brown pants, a brown leather jacket, and a white sweatshirt underneath. "Wearing your halloween costume in the summer?"

The girl next to the her, who was most likely the bitch of the first one, laughed. She wore a blouse with a skull and brown cargo pants. "Ha ha! Good one Pinky-"

"Shut up!" She yelled at her bitch. Pinky and her bitch walked over to Gwencaster and sat on the table that the body swapped teen was at. [Think I'm just adding humor to what seem's like a grim situation? This next line kinda cements the idea that I've been presented with.] "Only two rules here. Rule one, I'm in charge, so what I say goes." She patted Gwencaster's cheek.

Gwencaster gulped. "And rule number two?"

"Obey rule one, or else." Pinky cracked her knuckles.

Bellwood's seafood district...

Charmen placed a bag of items onto a truck with crates that had lobsters on them. She walked over to a stand that was selling different types of shellfish.

June and Jack walked over to Charmen. "Ooo, well, judging from this list of ingredient, whatever you're going to be cooking up is going to be very exotic." June said as she rubbed her stomach.

Jack knew what his mom meant. "Translation: Not fit for human consumption."

As Charmen looked through what the fishmonger had available, she asked if she had a particular ingredient. "Sea urchin eggs? What do I look like? Mr Seafood gourmet. What you see is what I got girly."

Charmen had a furious glare on her face. She held out her hand and said to herself: "Latnica sorensay." That spell cause the octopi to come back to life and jump at the fishmonger. "Oh look at that. It seems bad things can happen to you when you're not nice."

As Jack and June rushed to help the fishmonger out of a situation that is partially the reason why I'll never eat sushi, two of the fish market's other patrons nodded at each other. They got in the truck that Charmen had placed her bag of ingredients in. They drove off.

After Jack and June pulled the last octopi off of the fishmonger's face, the vendor noticed that it was his truck that was being stolen. "Hey! That's my truck!" He shouted as he tried to run after his livelihood.

"My ingredients!" Charmen said as she saw her bag in the back of the truck.

"Looks like a job for XLR8." Jack said as he back up behind a rack of produce. He activated the Omnitrix, and transformed not into XLR8, but into Diamondhead.

"Diamondhead?! You gotta be kidding me! I have a need for speed!" He facepalmed.

Charmen saw a couple of segways. "We'll use these." She and Diamondhead got on.[I just thought back to a scene from The Simpsons. "Do you find something comical about my appearance when I'm driving my automobile?"]

"Drat. No keys. We're gonna have to find another way." As Diamondhead said that, Charmen raved her her glowing hand, which started the segways, which caused Diamondhead to drive off.

"Guess we don't need them, let's go." Charmen followed Diamondhead.

Meanwhile...

"Heh, what'd I tell you? Easy money." One of the thieves said, this one looked alarmingly like one of the convicts who hijacked the prison bus a while ago.

"Hey, I think we're being followed by a little girl and some big ice sculpture looking thing." The second thief said as he looked in the rearview mirror.

Diamondhead's eyes as the segways he and Charmen were on went faster than they were supposed to go. As they went in the direction of a park, Diamondhead struck a car, causing him to spin around a few times before getting his segway back under control.

"Look out!" He shouted at the people that were in his way. "Coming through!" He crashed into a hotdog cart. "Ooof." He then crashed into a park bench. "Sorry."

While Diamondhead became a one alien disaster zone in Bellwood for the first time[seeing as this'll become regular for him in the future], Charmen was managing to catch up with the stolen truck.

Diamondhead's weight caused the wheels on his segway to break off, causing the now broken two wheeled vehicle to skid along the road. It hit a pothole, causing it to flip, sending Diamondhead into a dumpster. The now trash covered petrosapien climbed out of the dumpster and somehow got onto the rooftops. He came to the end of that block and jumped, overestimating his jumping power. As he fell towards the road, he flung several crystal shards that formed a ramp that he used to propel himself away from the road and towards one of the buildings. He flung several more shards, forming another ramp that he used to send himself in the direction of the truck. He continued to from slides to catch up with the stolen vehicle.

In the truck, the driver looked in the truck's rearview mirror and saw that Charmen was no longer following them. "Where'd she go?" He asked.

Charmen appeared in the truck standing behind the seat that they sat in. She said: "You guys messed with the wrong girl."

While Diamondhead was in the air, he flung a dozen or so crystal shards at the truck's tires. Most of them missed, but one managed to hit, causing the tire to be torn up. The truck spun around wildly before coming to a stop.

After landing Diamondhead ran up to the truck. "Gwen, are you alright?" He went to go see if his cousin was okay.

Charmen was sitting on the back of the truck laughing as the two thieves were being attacked by the lobsters that she had brought back to life with a spell.

"We give up!" The driver screamed.

"Just get these things off us!" The other thief yelled as he was pinched in various places by the lobsters.

"Don't you think we should help them?" Diamondhead asked, unable to believe what he was seeing.

"Let'em suffer. That'll teach them to steal from me." Charmen said. That got Diamondhead concerned. "Oh well. I have more shopping to do." She said as she got off the truck and walked off.

Prison...

Gwencaster, like all the prisoners was getting their lunch, which was indescribable. It looks like mashed potatoes with something else in it, but that's just a guess.

"What an interesting color." Gwencaster said with an uneasy smile. "Say, you wouldn't have anything that's gluten free wouldn't you?"

"Sure thing." The server placed her finger into her ear and removed a wad of earwax. She placed it in Gwencaster's 'food', almost causing the body swapped teen to vomit. Gwencaster got out of there as fast as possible. "Make sure you come back for seconds sweety. There's more where that came from."

Gwencaster sat at one of the tables. She laid her arms on the table and used them to cushion her head. She felt something up one of her sleeves. It was a spellbook that was exactly like the one that she swiped from Charmcaster the last time she and her Uncle Hex crossed paths with Jack and the gang. "Charmcaster's book of spells?" Gwencaster saw that there was a page that was bookmarked. She opened the book to that page and read what was on it. "Body transference spells. So that's how she did it. But why would Charmcaster want to switch bodies with me. Unless she didn't want to switch with me." Gwencaster though of who else Charmcaster might want to use. "Jack! She wanted to switch with Jack. That way she could get the Omnitrix."

"Yo princess, what'cha got there?" Pinky demanded to know what Gwencaster was doing.

Missy, Pinky's servant said: "You've been holding out on us."

As Gwencaster tried to get away, Pinky grabbed her arm and held her down. "What'cha got to say for yourself now princess?"

"Uh, just this." Gwencaster grabbed the tray that she had been served her meal on. "Food fight!" She flung her food at Pinky and Missy, causing the two to stumble back into two of their fellow inmates.

Food of unknown type was flying around as the cafferia of the prison erupted into chaos.

Missy growled before lunging at Gwencaster, who got out of the way, causing the secondary antagonist to land in the food of one of the large prisoners, a rather beefy girl who was angered at what Missy did.

Gwencaster tried to get away, but she ran into Pinky, who towered over her. "You got guts girl, I'll give you that." Pinky held up Gwencaster by the collar of her clothing. "Now quit stalling and give it to me." Uh, phrasing.

"Okay, I just don't know what exactly 'it' is." She pulled six brown stone eggs form out of her sleeve. They hatched into small chickens. Wait, what? The chickens flew at Pinky, who tried to swat them away. She was knocked over.

The prisoners crowded around Gwencaster. They looked ready to do things to her. The stone chickens then flew at the prisoners, chasing them away.

However, she was grabbed by the lunchlady. "Trouble maker huh?" She said in a disapproving tone as she shook her ladle at Gwencaster. "Well you'll be scrubbing pots and pans until those pretty little hands of yours fall of."

Gwencaster took the spell book from out of her sleeve and read one of the spells. "Bellum ocurro mazzura." The spell caused the lunch lady's ladle to bend, then wrap around her arm. Apparently there is no ladle.

Scared, she tossed the ladle away and back up towards the counter. The forks and knives that were near her came to life. They walked towards her, this caused her to slip and fall into a trash can.

There was an awkward silence for what felt like an half an hour, but in reality was for only a few seconds. The prisoners applaud what Gwencaster had done.

"Cool." Pinky said.

As Gwencaster took a bow, one of the guards walked up to her. "Let me guess, you're innocent?" She asked.

At a fishing pier...

Jack and June were sitting on the outside of a bait and tackle shop.

"Mom, have you noticed that Gwen's been acting kinda weird today? And by that, I mean weirder than normal." Jack asked.

"Just because she wants to follow in her grandfather's culinary footsteps doesn't mean she's weird Jack." June replied.

Jack looked at his mom with an expression that showed that June misunderstood what he said.

"Oh, you mean the whole foot twisting thing." June said. "Yeah, I guess she has been acting a bit off. But it's nothing to worry about."

Charmen walked out of the shop with a small take out box in her hand. "Got it, the final ingredient."

June took the styrofoam container out of Charmen's hand. She looked at what was inside. "Sea urchin eggs? Wow, those must've been expensive."

"Not really. I sweet talked them into giving me a deal." Charmen said after taking the container out of June's hands.

In the shop, the two employees were hanging upside down while tied up. They were only wearing their boxers and had pieces of tape over their mouths.

Back at the prison...

Gwencaster, Pinky, and Missy were currently cleaning the floor of the food debris.

"And when you're finished here, one of you gets to buff my bunions." The lunch lady spat. She walked off.

"Ha! Small price to pay to see the look on Crabtree's face when she fell into the trashcan." Pinky said when the lunch lady, who was bizarrely named Crabtree, was out of earshot.[I don't wanna know how she got that nickname.] "You're alright with me princess. Look, you ever need anything-"

"Actually, what I need is to find a way out of here." Gwencaster said as she mopped up the floor.

Missy thought that Gwencaster was crazy. "Armed guards at every exit? You'd have to be crazy to-" Before she could finish, Gwencaster interupted her.

Gwencaster saw a drain cover that wasn't bolted down, like, at all. "Hey, I think I found a way out." She said in a whisper. "But I'll need a distraction."

"No problem." Pinky said, a devious smile forming on her face. She sprayed the hose at Crabtree with Missy threw her mop at one of the two guards that was in the room, causing her to fall over.

With the guards distracted, Gwencaster took one of the stone eggs and threw it at the drainage grate, causing it to fly off and towards the guards, but not hitting them. An alarm sounded as Gwencaster, Pinky, and Missy jumped into the hole.

E;sewehere, Charmcaster's bag, which would be hte cause of her future insanity, bounced out of the storage room that it had been placed in and went in the direction of its owner.

Gwencaster, Pinky, and Missy made their way through the sewers. They went around a corner and came to a grate that blocked their way.

"Check it out." Pinky said as she pulled on the bars. "This must spill out into the city's main drainage system."

"If we can get past is..." Missy began.

Pinky finished: "We're home free."

The heard splashing. The three escapees looked behind them and saw Charmcaster's bag approaching them, as well as water that was reflecting light from flashlights.

The bag jumped into Gwencaster's arms. She unzipped the mouth, finding that inside it there were several stone eggs inside it. "Step back." She said before tossing one of the eggs at the grate, breaking it. After the blast cleared, she asked: "So, I don't suppose you're gonna change your ways and give up crime, are you?"

Pinky and Missy looked at each other before bursting into laughter.

"Yeah right." Missy said as she and Pinky made their way to the opening that Gwencaster created. "We gotta make up for lost time."

"I thought you were going to say that." Gwencaster said, shaking her head. She tossed two stone spheres that grew into Charmcaster's standard Rock Monsters.

They roared, causing Missy and Pinky to turn and run right into the arms of the guards. The monsters turned and followed Gwencaster.

As the two convicts were being escorted back to prison, Pinky looked over her shoulder and shouted: "If I ever see you again Princess, I'm gonna introduce you to all ten of my friends!" Uhh, phrasing.

Later, Autobot base...

Charmen was cooking up something in the middle of the hanger. The only others present were Jack and June, seeing how the 'bots were out collecting energon, Miko was at her new host parents' house, and Raf was with his family helping them unpack.[Coincidence time: Miko's host parents are Carl and Frank Tennyson, Ben's parents. Also, Raf's family now lives in Bellwood.]

Jack walked out of the Rust Bucket. He took a whiff of the air and gagged. He went back into the Rust Bucket and came out with a gas mask on.

As Jack made his way to the door of the hanger, June noticed what her son was wearing. "Jack, what's the gas mask for?"

"The stench. It smells worse than boiling gasoline."

"Wha?" June asked before she got back to helping Charmen with what was really a potion.

Jack got out of the hanger and removed the gas mask. He sat on the ground. Jack saw Charmcaster approaching.

"Charmcaster!" Jack shouted. "This time I'm locking you away myself." He was tackled by two of her Rock Monsters.

"I can't let you do that Jack. Once you go hero, you'll kick my butt without listening to what I have to say. You and Arcee have the same problem of not trusting bad guys." Charmcaster said.

"You got that right." Jack said as he struggled.

"Just listen." Gwencaster said. "Gwen's not Gwen. I'm Gwen. She did some kinda transference spell and wound up switching bodies."

"How dumb do you think I am?" Jack asked.

"I don't have time for trick questions! I'm telling you the truth. Haven't you noticed Gwen acting more than a bit strange?"

Jack realized that he was right in thinking that there was something wrong with Gwen.

"You gotta believe me! If you don't, the real Charmcaster is going to switch bodies with you and get the Omnitrix.

"What's she doing here?" Charmen asked as she and June ran up.

Jack got between Gwencaster and Charmen and June. "She saws you're not you, but then she's not herself, but you're eachother. At least that's what I think she's saying." Jack scratched his head in confusion.

"Gwen, is this true?" June asked Charmen.

"She's not Gwen!" Gwencaster yelled.

"Who're you gonna believe? This liar or your eyes?" Charmen asked.

"Okay, if you're Gwen, then you should know the name of the teddy bear that Jack sleeps with."

"Hey! Kinteddy[Kintaros+Teddy Bear] has his own bed, that just happens to be next to mine."

Gwencaster groaned as she pulled her white hair. "You just gave her the answer you doofus! Are you sure you're not adopted?" She asked. That caused Jack to realize that who he thought was Charmcaster was telling the truth.

"Gwen? It really is you?"

"Duh, that's what I've been saying!"

Charmen looked at her nails. "Oh well, at least I can stop being nice and sweet. It was making me sick." She had her hands on her sides. "I'm just lucky you have a magical aura or none of my spells would've worked."

"Yeah, well how's about a little taste of you own medicine." Gwencaster held up her sleeve, causing a glowing chain to come out of it.

It was going to wrap around Charmen, but the sorceress canceled it out with a spell. "Unsquiera despariot." A mystical shockwave was projected, causing the chains to break apart and knock over the Tennysons. "I'm the real sorceress remember?" The Rock Monsters joined the Tennysons. "Now I switch bodies with doofus here and every spell I cast will be alien supercharged." She held up her arm, causing a streak of purple smoke to fly out of the hanger and form a circle around her. She chanted: "Transfera identica. Transfera identica. Transfera indentica!"

Jack, Charmen, and Gwencaster were caught in the spell's effect.

As June got up, she saw Charmcaster walking out of a cloud of smoke.

"No!" The sorceress expressed her disappointment at the spell failing. "This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. I'm me again!"

"Ha! Your spell screwed up again!" Jack laughed, or was it?

"So I should be me, right? 'Cause I feel kinda strange. Not quite myself." Gwen asked, but- Uh oh.

Jack and Gwen ran out of the cloud. They looked at eachother and then screamed. "Aah! I'm you!" They pointed at each other.

"This is so wrong." Gwek(Gwen in Jack's body) shuddered.

"You got that right." Jaen(Jack in Gwen's body) rubbed his(?) head, trying to make sense of what was happening.

"W-w-wait a minute." June too was trying to make sense of this. "Now, if you're Jack," She pointed at Jaen. "and you're Gwen," She pointed at Gwek. "then I'm, really confused." She scratched her head.

"Uhg! You fools! Now I only have enough ingredients to mix up one more transference spell!" Charmcaster fumed.

"You're not gonna get the chance, cause it's hero time." Jaen was about to activate the Omnitrix, but he found that he didn't have anything on his(?) wrist.

"You're not wearing the Omnitrix, I am." Gwek pointed at herself(?).

One of Charmcaster's Rock Monsters tackled Gwek. The other one tried to do the same to Jaen, but he(?) ducked, causing it to collide into the second one. Jaen, June, and Gwek ran away from the hanger. Charmcaster flung several pinches of a dust at high velocities. The dust exploded, but missed.

As they ran, Jaen noticed that Gwek was struggling to activate the Omnitrix. "What're you waiting for? Go alien and kick her ass!"

"I'm trying! Which way do you turn this thing." Gwek asked.

The trio was hit by one of the blasts. Everything went black for them.

June awoke later. She found herself tied to a telephone pole.

"You won't get away with this!" She shouted. She tried to get out, but found that Charmcaster if anything knew how to tie a knot.

The sorceress laughed at the woman. "Said the nurse tied to the telephone pole." She looked away from June and back to her cauldron, but a few seconds later, looked back. "Oh, and your cooking stinks!"

June was confused. "It does? The 'bots and Raf haven't complained." [Me(once again about Raf not being what he seems): Mwah ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh this is gonna be a shocker.]

Charmcaster shook her head before getting back to preparing the spell.

Jaen and Gwek were in a tool shed, both of them in stockades that the base had for some reason- wait... ooh. From inside the shed, they could still smell what Charmcaster was brewing.

"Uhg. And being you isn't bad enough." Jaen complained. He(?) licked his(?) lips and tasted what was on it. "Peach lip balm? Strawberry hand lotion?! Who wants to be a fruit basket?!"[A guy you're gonna team up with Jack, that's who.]

Gwek had an idea. "That's it! My hand lotion!"

"Really? We're in trouble and you're worried that your hands aren't soft enough. What a cliche."

"One with brains." She(?) rolled her(?) eyes. "I have a bottle in my back pocket. If you can rub it on your-my wrist, your hand should be able to slide out."

"Excellent plan, but how am I gonna reach it?" Jaen asked.

"Like this." Gwek kicked Jaen's butt.

"Ow! What gives?!"

Gwek stopped kicking. "You should be happy, you're kicking my butt."

"I meant it figuratively."

"Oh well." Gwek continued kicking Jaen's butt until the bottle of lotion flew out of it and into her(?) hand.

"Yes!" Jaen exclaimed.

Gwek squirted some of the lotion of her(?) hand, which lubricated it, allowing her(?) hand to slide her(?) hand out.

"Hurry up and transform!" Jaen shouted.

Gwek was transformed into Cannonbolt. "Woah, this is kinda cool." Cannonbolt said with a deep feminine voice.

"Would've gone for Big Chill or Feedback, but Cannonbolt's okay."

"Well sorry, I couldn't see which one I'm selecting."

"Could you just get me out of here?"

Outside, Charmcaster was almost done getting ready.

"I think I'll transform into that fire alien first. With my spell funnelled through that alien body, Bellwood's gonna get burned."

She heard something. She went to the shed that the locked the teens in and opened the door, but found that it was empty.

"Tennyson!" Charmcaster shouted.

While Charmcaster was distracted, June managed to untie herself. She used one of the ropes that held her up and swung down, delivering a spiderman style kick, knocking her over.

The two rock monsters that were in a dormant state near the cauldron awakened.

"Sick 'er boys!" Charmcaster ordered.

When one of the Rock Monsters tried to pounce on June, she grabbed a shovel and beat the creature of stone with it. The other one then pounced on June, knocking her into a crate.

"You really should respect your elders." Cannonbolt said as she and Jaen came from behind a tool shed.

"I don't respect anyone."

"It's over, give up or I'm- er I mean she's gonna run you over like a tank." Jaen pointed to Cannonbolt.

"All you did was save me a trip below to get you."

Cannonbolt charged at Charmcaster, but the sorceress flew up, causing the Pelarota to crash into a chest high wall. She unrolled and rubbed her head. "Woah I gotta give Jack credit. This hero stuff is a lot tougher than it looks."

Charmcaster landed on an artillery piece. Her hands glowed as she said: "Declam baccura." That spell caused the cannons to turn and target Jaen. They fired not standard shells, but cannonballs.

Jaen bent backwards to avoid the shells. She was impressed with how agile Gwen's body was.

Charmcaster went back over to the cauldron. "Third times the charm." She formed a ring of smoke around herself. "Transfera identica. Transfera identica. Transfera identica."

Cannonbolt charged at Charmcaster, but she was caught in a purple bubble.

"Jack, do something!" Cannonbolt yelled.

Jaen saw a rope that was hanging. He grabbed it and used it to swing into the bubble that Charmcaster was in, pushing her out.

The two bubbles combined. Both Jack and Gwen were back in their own bodies. However, since the Omnitrix hadn't timed out, Jack was still Cannonbolt.

"I'm me again!" Gwen was glad to be back in her own body.

"And I'm Cannonbolt." Jack was just happy that Miko wasn't here. He'd never hear the end of it.

"I'll just cook up another transference spell! I can't be stopped!" Charmcaster shouted.

"Yeah, no." Cannonbolt then rolled up and charged at Charmcaster, the sorceress trying really hard to keep away from the alien. Cannonbolt jumped up and knocked Charmcaster to the ground. He grabbed a chain that was attached to a block of concrete and rolled around her, tying her up.

She tried to reach into her magic back, but Cannonbolt grabbed that and rolled around. He then tossed it a few miles away from the base.

"No!" Charmcaster yelled.

Gwen walked up to Charmcaster. "You want an out of body experience? Try this." She sucker punched Charmcaster, knocking her out.

"Little help here?" June asked as she continued to struggle with the Rock Monsters. She tossed them off of her back.

Cannonbolt then rolled over the gravel gremlins, destroying them.

"Nice job Gwen." June said as the Omnitrix timed out.

"Mom, it's me, Jack."

"Okay, that it. I give up."

Later...

As Charmcaster was being hauled off to prison, (sigh)again, Jack and Gwen spoke with each other.

"Jack, should we tell the 'bots what happened?" Gwen asked.

"And risk Miko finding out? No way. Let's never speak of this again."

"Agreed."

"So, what's gonna happen to Charmcaster?" Jack asked.

"Oh, I have a pretty good idea."

Even later...

Charmcaster was curling up in a corner. She was approached by Missy and Pinky, who looked mad.

"Welcome back princess." Pinky said while cracking her knuckles.

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's note: This chapter was weird. Very, very weird. But hey, I'm sure this is gonna be a strange as things get. Right? Right?
> 
> I was originally going to have this all take place in Bellwood(which is where Jack and June now live), but when I rewatched the episode, I learned that it takes place in Salem, a location from Fallout 4. And as to why Fowler's spending time with Jack and Gwen, he's doing it to get to know them better, since apart from the conversation forty chapters ago, Jack and Fowler haven't had much in terms of interaction thus far, and Fowler and Gwen have only been in the same room three times.
> 
> And of minor importance, I've invented four new names, Gwencaster(Gwen Tennyson+Charmcaster), Charmen(Charmcaster+Gwen), Gwack(Gwen+Jack), and Jaen(Jack+Gwen). I honestly don't know if any of these are real names, but I know that Gwencaster is a real term used for Gwen Tennyson/Charmcaster pairings. The other three, if they're not real, feel free to use them.
> 
> Another thing, in this chapter, it would've originally been Charmcaster accidently switching bodies with Arcee, not Gwen. Meaning that in the ending of the chapter, it would've been Jack and Arcee switching bodies. This actually gives me an idea for a one shot that I might do. It's gonna be based off of the episode Gwen 10, but'll have Arcee find the Omnitrix instead of Jack.
> 
> And as to why the 'cons are nowhere to be found, they're still licking their wounds from Rebellion. They'll be back in time for the finale, but, they won't be much of a threat when compared to the big villain at the end.
> 
> As I finished rereading this chapter, as well as the most recent ones, I feel like I've been Sinning them as I write them, with this chapter being where I realized what I was doing. I guess that's what happens when you binge watch Cinemasins.


	46. A non-Cybertronian Relic Hunt

Texas...

In an field of oil pumps, all was going as it should normally go. You know what, this is the fourth to last chapter, you people should know by now that nothing ever is normal in this story. We've been through this at least twenty times before; everything's fine, then something strange happens(either by alien, magical, or human influence), then we're introduced to what's going to advance the plot this week.

As two of the workers were drilling a shaft for a pump to move crude oil out of, a third worker noticed something was up.

"Something's wrong."

"It's probably nothing Spike."[An:Think of G1 Spike Witwicky, who when looking back on the G1 cartoon, only owned two or three sets of clothing.]

Dust was sprayed from the sides of the drill bit as the rock started to crack.

"Run!" Spike shouted, knowing that this was gonna end badly. It's almost like he's friends with the writer or something. He and the other two workers turned and ran away from the drill. They were able to outrun the collapsing ground as a sinkhole formed. A blast of flame erupted from the sinkhole. It went up into the sky, getting about a hundred feet tall. What resembled a face formed in the flames. The flames then formed into a grey and gold mask with green lenses. The mask landed on the edge of the sinkhole, where it was picked up by Spike.

Meanwhile, Autobot base...

"Well?" Max asked Miko and Jack as the two of them sat at a table with some sorta 'food' in front of them. Surprisingly, they were eating it. Max sat across from them. "Bet you've never tasted anything like that before?"

"What's the crunchy stuff?" Jack asked with a full mouth.

"Dung beetles." Max said.

The realization hit Jack and Miko slowly. They each chewed once more, then again slower. Their eyes widened. They looked at each other before they turned to the side and spat out what was in their mouths.

"What? Too spicy?" Max asked. "You'll get used to it."

An alarm went off. From the table the three of them sat a, a screen folded up. It turned to face Max.

"No." Max muttered. Jack heard what his grandpa said and was concerned.

"Grandpa, what is it?"

"The mask of Ah Puch." Max turned the screen to face Jack and Miko. "It's the key to what is rumored to be one of the most powerful and destructive weapons ever." Max folded the screen down. "Get in the Rust Bucket both of you."

Later, in Texas...

After using a ground bridge to get to the lone star state, the Tennysons' RV drove down a desert road.

"The mask of Ah Puch is the guide to the sword of Ek Chuaj. For decades, the plumbers searched for it without any luck."

"Ek Chuaj?" Jack asked. "What kinda alien is that?"

"Not alien, Mayan. Ek Chuaj was the Mayan god of war. His sword was rumored to level cities with just one swipe."

"Cool. Maybe we should give it to Optimus to replace the Star Saber."

"Now's not the time for jokes Jackson." Max snapped. "Whoever controls the sword controls the destiny of mankind, and I will not let it fall into the wrong hands."

Jack and Miko looked at each other with worried faces.

Later...

The Rust Bucket arrived at the oil field that the mask was discovered at.

"Bet they're keeping it in the basement." Max said as he, Jack, and Miko looked at the fenced off field. "Jack, you go alien and sneak in, then open the side door for us."

"Grandpa, isn't that illegal?" Jack was concerned that his grandpa was making him break the law. "Why not get Fowler to confiscate the mask?"

"Jack, I haven't got time to explain how important it is for us to get the mask. This is Plumber business, not the Autobots'. Now can a count on you or not?" Max glared at his grandson.

"You know you can grandpa." Jack said. As Max walked out of the Rust Bucket, Jack got out of his seat and looked to Miko, who was sitting at the table in the Rust Bucket.

"What's up with you grandpa?" Miko asked. "He's so, intense."

"Cut him some slack." Jack defended. "He's trying to save the world."

"If you say so." Miko replied.

Jack activated the Omnitrix. He selected Grey Matter and transformed.

Soon...

Grey Matter ran across the sandy ground and got to a drainage pipe. He went into it and climbed up.

"Mr Tennyson, I know Jack can be a major pain, but don't you think-"

Miko was interrupted by Max. "You're just kids, I don't expect you to understand." He replied.

"Actually, we do. The 'bots went on these back before the base got blown up."

"It's different now. The Sword of Ek Chuaj is more powerful than any cybertronian weapon from ancient times."

"Why? What makes it so special?"

"Anyone, from the lowliest of beggars to the highest of rulers can wield the sword's power. No grave robbing required."

Inside...

Grey Matter entered through a grate in the bathroom. He removed what I hoped was a bit of gum from his head.

"Aw man." Grey Matter groaned. "I should've just gone Big Chill and walked in. He heard growling. Grey Matter looked and saw two angry looking German Shepherds growling at him. They ran at him, but Grey Matter ran and got out of the way. The two guard dogs ran into each other, bonking their heads and were stun locked. Grey Matter ran out of the bathroom. He pushed the mop bucket that held the door open out of the way, causing the door to close, trapping the dogs in there.

Soon...

Max and Miko were waiting out door to a tornado shelter. The handle turned. Max pulled the door open. Grey Matter swung off of the handle and landed on the door that was still closed.

"About time." Max said as he entered the basement.

As Miko followed Max, she picked up Grey Matter and sniffed. "Why do you smell like Raf's house?" She closed the door behind her.

A rather familiar black car pulled up. Uh oh.

In the basement...

Grey Matter sat on Miko's shoulder as she followed Max down the concrete hallways.

Miko glanced at the Galvan that was on her shoulder"Has your grandpa ever been this serious?" She asked.

"Besides Optimus, I've never seen anyone this serious."

They came to a room that had a safe in it.

"It has to be in here." Max reasoned.

"I'm on it." Grey Matter jumped off of Miko's shoulder and onto the safe. He climbed up to the dial and held his head to where the tumblers were. He spun the dial with his left foot, listening for the clicks. He turned the dial and got the right combot. He gave a thumbs up.

"Good job Jack." Miko said.

Max turned the handle and opened the safe. "Beautiful, isn't it?" He asked.

"Uh, well, not exactly." Grey Matter replied.

Max picked up the mask. "After nearly forty years of searching, and now, finally your-" Max heard metallic footsteps.

Max looked behind him to see Enoch and two of his knights. "It though you retired from the Plumbing business Mr Tennyson, or may I call you Max?"

"It's Enoch and those Forever Knight guys who tried to slice and dice me." Grey Matter shook his fist at the leader of this small group of Forever Knights.

"How nice of you to remember. Of course, how can I forget the family as well as the girl who left the Forever Knights without a castle?"

"What ever happened you brought upon yourselves." Max pointed at Enoch.

"Aren't we the feisty sewer rat. I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm late for getting the weapon that'll let my employer hold the world at his mercy." Enoch held out his hand. "So, I'll be taking that mask now."

"Over my dead body." Max glared daggers at Enoch.

"Excellent suggestion. Gentlemen."

The two knights nodded. They drew blue bladed energy swords and approached the Tennysons and Miko.

A security guard burst into the room suddenly. "Hey! What's going on in here?"

That distracted Enoch, allowing Grey Matter to jump off of the safe and onto the face mask of Enoch.

"Run!" Grey Matter shouted as he hung onto Enoch's face.

Max and Miko ran into the hall. Max body slammed the security guard, knocking him over.

After some effort, Enoch ,a aged to pry Grey Matter off his face. He tossed grey matter onto a desk. The galvan collided with a mug that fell off the table and hit the on button of the paper shredder.

As Max and Miko ran down the hall, the two Knights with swords were going to go after them, but Enoch had a better idea. "Wait." He pointed in the opposite direction. "This way."

Meanwhile, Grey Matter was starting to panic slightly. "Woah!" He ran up some papers that fell off the stack that he held onto. He grabbed onto the desk. "No way I'm winding up alien coleslaw." He propped his feet on the desk and flung himself away from the paper shredder. He ran over to a pipe and jumped into it. He then climbed up it and was trying to find a way out.

The guard recovered from the body slam. "We've got burglars." He radioed in. "Seal the exits!"

An alarm went off as Max and Miko ran up the stairs. They came to the main door, but there was a guard stationed at it. "Wrong way." Max said.

They ran down the hall and came to a t junction. Turning to the left, they were running. Got the door. However, the mask was shot at with a grappling hook. It was grabbed off of Max's belt and brought to Enoch's hands.

"Your loss is my gain." Enoch and the two Forever Knight turned and ran away from Max and Miko, who turned to see a metal panel defending.

"Grab on." Max said. He held onto Miko's hand as they ran towards the door. They slid underneath the door before it got too low for Max to fit through.

Meanwhile, Grey Matter had made his way out of the building. He fell out of the opening of the pipe. "Woah!" He yelled as the Omnitrix timed out. "Uhg. I hate it when this happens." Jack groaned. He was covered in whatever they were throwing away that week.

The rust Bucket drove up to the dumpster Jack fell in. Max was behind the wheel. "We don't have time to fool around Jack, get in!"

With Enoch...

Enoch held the mask of Ah Puch to his face. "Ha ha ha." He chuckled darkly.

The Forever Knight that was driving saw the rust bucket approaching in its boost mode.

In the Rust Bucket...

Max pressed something on the dashboard. A RV's radio folded around, revealing a panel with two red buttons. Max pressed one of them, which caused the front of the Rust Bucket to extend out.

The Rust Bucket rammed into Enoch's car. In response, the go,d faced Forever Knight typed in a key code that caused a buzz saw to unfold from where the trunk of the car would normally be.

Max saw the buzz saw. The driver of the Forever Knights' car slowed down, causing the blade to cut into the extended bumper. Max then pressed the red button again, retracting the front bumper.

As this was going on, Jack had a worried face. Miko got up from the table and said to Jack: "Come on! Wildmutt, Feedback, somebody?!"

"Trying. This stupid watch won't let me." Jack tried pressing the activate button, but found that it wasn't doing anything to help.

"This is a job for a Plumber." Max said. He pressed a button on the dashboard right next to the vent for the AC.

An electronic voice announced: "Auto Driver engaged." Max got out of the driver's seat a went to the bathroom.

"Uh, grandpa." Jack asked as his grandpa started to act stranger and stranger.

"Guess when you gotta go, you gotta go." Miko said after Max closed the door to the bathroom.

The Forever Knights' car turned suddenly and got behind the Rust Bucket. Two of the Forever Knights climbed out of the sunroof. They jumped onto the ladder at the back of the rust bucket and climbed onto the roof.

The mask of Ah Puch projected the image of what the temple in which the sword of Ek Chuaj resided in. "Excellent." He was grinning. Under his mask.

"Come on. Work." Jack muttered as he pressed the button rapidly.

Max got out of the bathroom wearing the his Plumber suit. "Uhg. Not again." Miko groaned.

Max went to the back of the rust bucket and moved the curtains out of the way. He looked behind the rust bucket and saw the Forever Knights' car. The automobile swerved to get alongside the rust bucket.

Max got two magnet clamps off of his utility belt. He leaped over to the car and held onto the roof.

Enoch heard Max crawling toward the sun roof. He energized one of the swords and stabbed the roof. However, either Enoch had stormtrooper aim, or Max's plumber suit had an early warning system, and Max was able to avoid being hit by the blade. However, the second jab hit beneath his chest, causing Max to partially lose his grip.

"Grandpa!" Jack yelled as he saw his grandfather almost fall off.

Max held onto the side of the car. He was trying to pull himself back onto the roof of the car.

Jack and Miko heard banging,. On the roof, one of the Forever Knights was banging on an emergency exit with a mace. The second grabbed one of the rails and swung into the rust bucket.

Miko gasped as the knight approached her. Miko rolled between the night's legs and. Getting behind him. He turned around to face Miko.

"You wanna fight?" Jack Forever Knight looked over his shoulder. "Try picking on someone your own size!"

The Forever Knight drew his sword and brought it down, getting it stuck in the the dashboard when Jack got out of the way.

As Max got one of his feet on the roof of the car, Enoch stabbed his sword through the roof, getting making it hit near max's foot,

The driver of the car slammed I or rh rust bucket, breaking the car's headlights. The two vehicles swerved. The rust bucket grinding up against the side of the bridge.

Jack fell over and bumped his head on the floor. He rubbed his head as he got back up. The Forever Knight was back on his feet as he ran at Jack. Jack gasped before running to the back of the rust bucket. As the knight chased Jack, it didn't expect to be hit by the refrigerator door, which Miko, who was sitting on the stove opened with her left foot. The Forever Knight would've fallen out, if he hadn't grabbed onto the side of the RV's door. However, Jack hit the Forever Knight with a steel coffee pot, which caused to Forever Knight to lose his grip and fall to the road.

The night looked up and saw that they were thirty miles from the Mexico border.

"Nice job." Miko and Jack congratulated each other. The second knight broke through the emergency exit. Miko grabbed the fire extinguisher, which so far seems to be the go to improvised weapon.

The night looked into the broken exit. He didn't expect to be sprayed by the fire extinguisher, which got into his eyes. He stumbled back and hit his heel on the railing on the roof. He fell down.

It seems a member of the Wilhelm family had joined the Forever Knights, as their trademarked scream could be heard. It was only a matter of time, the Wilhelms are such a large and varied yet tragic family, with members of multiple species including Cybertronian.[Yeah, that thing from Fall of Cybertron with the Autobot Wilhelm is part of the main family.]

Enoch stabbed through the roof of his car, missing where Max had his magnet clamps. When Enoch thrust the blade through the car another time, it came within inches of Max's face. Max gasped. He took one of the clamps and stuck it to the sword, getting it stuck. As Enoch tried to pull it, Max crawled to the open sun roof and used the other Magna clamp to grab the mask.

Enoch looked to see that the mask was gone. He looked out of the wind ow and saw Max jump into the Rust Bucket.

"Got it!" Max said as he sat back in the driver seat.

Enoch was furious. He slammed his fist on the roof of the car as he looked out of the sun roof.

On the side of the road that the Rust Bucket was on, a truck drove down.

"Hold on!" Max said as he disabled autodrive.

Jack got in the passenger seat and buckled his seat belt.

Max pressed the button next to the autodrive button. The Rust Bucket's boosters were activated

"Ah!" Miko screamed as the rust bucket neared the truck. Max then swerved out of the way, but to the Rust Bucket scraped against the side of the truck.

Max pressed another button, releasing a bunch of road spikes. They hit the tires of the Forever Knights' car, destroying the tires and making it swerve off the road.

Enoch rolled down the window. "Send the chopper." He said over a cell phone.

Max saw that the rust Bucket was running out if power for its boost. Max deactivated it as the RV went on desert terrain. It came to a stop.

Later...

Max wasunderneath the rust bucket repairing it. He tossed a wrench form under the RV to Jack's feet.

"This is metric. I said I needed a half inch wrench." Max said, more than a bit annoyed.

"Sorry grump-pa." Jack moped.

Miko meanwhile was messing around with the mask. She held it to her face. The eyes started to glow.

Miko started to panic. "Uh, Mr Tennyson."

"Not now Miko." Max was not in the mood for Miko's shenanigans.

A green beam came out of each of the lenses. "I think you're gonna wanna see this." Miko said.

Max got out from under the rust bucket and saw what Miko was doing. He and Jack looked at what the mask projected, an image of the temple.

"It's the map to the ancient mayan temple of Ek Chuaj." Max was showing more determination than what Arcee shows when she wants Airachnid dead. "We need to beat them to that temple."

On Omnitrix recharge later...

Jack, as Stinkfly was flying over a jungle. He was carrying Miko on his back and held Max in his arms. Stinkfly was struggling to stay aloft.

Max's legs hit the tops of one of the trees. "Jack, can't you go any faster?" He asked.

Stinkfly grunted as he held his grandfather in his arms. "I'm sorry Grandpa. I'm not used to flying with multiple passengers." Stinkfly saw the temple. "We must be close." Right after he said that, the Omnitrix started to time out. "Uh oh. Hold on!" Stinkfly said before reverting back to Jack.. The three of them fell into the tree tops, screaming as they fell to the ground.

With the exception of a few scrapes, they were okay, however, Jack got mouthful of leaves. He spat them out. "I have got to work on those emergency landings."

Later...

As they walked through the jungle, Miko took pictures of the various animals with a camera that Ben gave her. She snapped a picture of the distant ancestor of the deathclaw.

The trio came to the temple, a massive stone structure. They went around to the entrance and saw a dual rotors helicopter by the door along with eon and a trio of Forever Knights.

One of them was putting an explosive device on the door.

"Fire in the hole!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran for shelter.

The bomb went off, but the door was still intact.

Enoch looked to see that the door only got this black stuff on it. It wasn't damaged at all. He turned to the Knights. "Still not open. Use a bigger charge you idiots." He ordered.

Jack, Miko, and Max snuck around to another entrance.

The ran up some steps and same to a wall.

"Now, there's always a secret entrance to these temples." Max scratched his chin. "He felt around the wall, looking for something to press down."Gah! Where is it?" Unbeknownst to him, Miko, took the mask.

The Japanese girl held it up to her face, her vision getting s green turned to face her.

"Miko, what're you doing?" He asked.

"This thing showed us how to get this far," Miko said as see looked around. "maybe it could show us how to get in." She found a brick that through the lenses of the mask, was a different color. She pressed down. A door opened.

They entered the temple.

"The sword would be kept in the center of the temple on the lowest floor." Max explained. "There should be some stairs nearby."

"Stairs? Aw man. Where's the express elevator when you really need it?" Miko groaned in frustration.

Things got dark. Max lit a torch to light the way.

Miko took a step forward and slipped on something. She stumbled to the edge of the broken bridge. She fell. "Woah!" Miko screamed as she fell. Thankfully, Max's reaction time was fast enough and he caught Miko. "Woah!" Jack was pulling on Max by his belt and was struggling to keep the two of them up.

"Ahg!" He grunted as he pulled with all his human might to save them. He got Max back up, whot then pulled Miko to safety.

"Whoo." Max pulled Miko in close. "That was close. Almost lost the mask." He picked up the mask of Ah Puch and attached it to his belt.

Miko stood up. "Okay. Can you say obsessed." She was concerned.

"Don't worry Miko, once he gets that sword, he'll be himself again. I hope." Jack said.

Soon...

They came to a wooden structure. A Very tall, very old wooden structure. Max and Jack climbed down the ladder.

"Stay sharp," Max cautioned. "the ancient mayans were notorious for setting-"

Miko snapped a piece of the structure off accidently. The sound of it breaking could be heard clearly.

"Booby traps?" Miko asked.

The ceiling started to rumble.

"Move!" Max shouted as the stones above them started to fall.

A large one fell, breaking the steps that were ahead of them. They were stuck, however, a they were tossed to the next platform when a rock landed near where they stood. Another rock hit that platform, flinging the, to another one. They ran down the steps, getting off of it before a rock that was bigger than the platform destroyed it.

As they ran, Jack struggled,to get the Omnitrix to work. "Come on! Somebody! Anybody!"

They got to a platform that was just behind one that got destroyed seconds after the got down.

Max took aim with his suit's grappling hook and fired a cable dart at the wall.

"Hang on!" Max shouted. Jack and Miko held onto Max as he swiping to safety.

Jack and Miko landed on the stone floor. They gasped as they stood up. Both teens saw their lives flash before their eyes. "Thanks grandpa." Jack said, panting.

Frustrated, Max asked: "You two coming?"

"Remember when hanging out with him was fun?" Miko asked as she and Jack walked down the stone stairs.

"I miss the old grandpa." Jack agreed.

"I'd eat a whole bowl of dung beetle stew if I thought it'd bring him back." Miko added.

They care to a door that was engraved with the mask of Ah Puch. In front of it was a pedestal that had a cavity that the mask could be put in.

"This is it." Max said, not paying attention when Miko and Jack were grabbed by a pair of Forever Knights.

A torch was ignited. Enoch was holding it. "Hahaha. Who says you can't get a plumber when you need one?" He chuckled. Max pointed a blaster at Enoch. The room became illuminated, showing that standing next to Enoch were two Knights. One held Miko, the other held Jack and had a knife to the Omnitrix user's throat. "Without you bringing the mask, we wouldn't've been able to get inside the great chamber.

Max's hand shook. He wanted to take the shot, but he didn't want Miko or Jack to get hurt. He dropped his blaster and held up his hands. Enoch took the mask.

Now," Enoch looked at the mask. "l believe it's time to toss the garbage."

Soon...

Max, Miko, and Jack stood in a line in front of a pit.

"Legend has it that the eternal pit of despair is bottomless." Enoch explained. [On a side note, this is a story where every legend has some basis in reality. From a world forged from chaos(the earth having the being known to Cybertronians as Unicron in it's core), the legendary red and blue hero(Kikaider), the various relics of Iacon(Star Saber, Forge of Solus Prime, Red Energon, etc), Greek gods(ancient cybertronians), even the devil himself is real(the chaos bringer), and God(Primus.) Basically due to the rules that've been established by this story, it probably is.] "Let's find out."

He pushed Jack into the pit.

"Aaaahhhh!" Jack screamed as he fell, unable to transform because the Omnitrix still hasn't recharged.

"Jack!" Max shouted as Jack got out of sight.

"Wouldn't want the lad to get lonely." He nodded to the two Knights who pushed Max and Miko in.

As he fell, Jack saw that the Omnitrix recharged. He activated it and transformed into Four Arms. He grabbed onto the wall of the cavern and caught Miko and Max. He put Miko on his shoulders. The girl wrapped her arms around Four Arms' neck.

"I am so go to stay with my parents next summer." She groaned. Four Arms rolled his eyes as he climbed up.

Back with the Forever Knights...

Eon placed the mask on the pedestal. It glowed green as the door opened. Behind the door was a miniature version of a Mayan pyramid that at the top, lie a golden sword that had shown in the light. It's handle was of stone and was shaped like a lizard. I think.

"Magnificent." Eon had found what he had come here for. "Bring it to me." He ordered. As the Knights approached the pyramid, a bestial roar was heard.

Back at the mouth of the pit of despair...

Four Arms climbed out of the pit, Miko had fallen unconscious, but her grip hadn't loosened. He set Max down, who grabbed his gear that had been removed by the Forever Knights.

"Grandpa, I think Miko needs a second to catch her breath." Four Arms was concerned for his friend.

"No can do." Max turned and ran to the door that Enoch opened. "Enoch may already have the sword."

Four arms grabbed his grandfather's arm. "Ever since that alarm went off, that sword's been all you think about."

Max piled his arm out of Four Arms' grip. He pointed at his currently tetramand grandson and said with much anger: "You two have to keep your eyes on the prize and remember what's important here."

"We do remember. Do you?"

Before Max could respond, they heard roaring. They ran to see what was making that noise.

They poked their head behind a corner as a knight was tossed against the door frame. The Forever Knights had picked a fight with something tough.

It was a monster with piercing red eyes. It stood as tall as three men. It wore a blue,and gold outfit. It's skin was greying purple and it's ears were pointed. What was really strange was the face. It looked like the mask.

"Why does that thing look familiar?" Four Arms asked

"It must be Ah Puch. The Mayan god of death and the underworld." Max reasoned. "He's the guardian of the sword of Ek Chuaj."

"Why can't the places be guarded by the guardian of cheerfulness? Is that too much to ask?" Miko asked. Then she realized something. "Wait, if that thing's supposed to be a god, why isn't he a Cybertronian?"

"The ancestors of the 'bots weren't the only aliens that visited this planet." Max explained. "The problem is knowing who visited who's ancestors."

"But what ever he is, it looks like he's pounding te bad guys for us." Four Arms said.

"Jack, keep him occupied while we get the sword." Max said Ashe and Miko ran towards the pyramid.

As Ah Puch tossed one of Forever Knights away, he det cited two more intruders. He climbed on the sides of the pyramid and saw Miko and Max. However, his attention was drawn away from them and to the alien known as four arms.

"Hey! Rat breath!" Four Arms motioned for Ah Puch to fight. "Come and get some."

Ah Puch lunged at Four Arms. Causing the two of them to bent the floor, bounce off it and hit the wall. The Mayan God held the tetramand against the wall as he used two of his arms to strike Ah Puck's shoulders. Ah Puch then slammed him into the ground then against the wall twice, the second time breaking through the wall. Four arms grabbed one of the pillars as Ah Puch jumped from rubble pile rubble pile. He charged at the God and slammed the pillar on him, but that had no effect. Ah Puch then punched the pillar apart then used what was left of it to slam Four Arms against the wall.

Max fired his grappling hook at the sword he tried to pull it to him, but Enoch cut the line. Max kicked Enoch down the steps. Miko and the retired Plumber climbed up the steep steps.

Enoch pulled a boleadoras from his tunic. He flung it at the two. It hit Miko, wrapping around her and making her fall down.

As Miko struggled, she saw one of the Knights approach her. "GP Max!" Miko shouted.

Max saw the pinch that Miko was in. He glanced at the sword and then to Miko. As the knight brought his sword, Mac jumped, San activated his suit's rocket boots. He flew at the knight, taming into him. He then pushed his feet off of the nights torso to propel himself to Miko. Max deployed a wrist blade that he used to cut the rope that restrained Miko. As the knight ran up, Max tossed three spheres at him, which exploded and blew him away.

"I have got to get a suit like that." Miko,was impressed.

Four arms punched Ah Puch in the face, making the 'God' flinch. In responce, Ah Puch wrapped his tongue around Four Arms' arm. Ah Puch swung Four Arms around, flinging him into the wall.

As Max was about to grab the sword of Ek Chuaj, a shield was thrown by Enoch, hitting Max and causing him to fall onto Miko. Fortunately, neither Miko nor Max were harmed but the fall. Enoch caught the shield as it came back to him.

He walked towards the pyramid as Ah Puch through Four Arms through the wall. He then though four arms against the wall and started beating the crap out of him.

Miko and Max made it back to the top of the pyramid. Enoch swung his word, which Max ducked to avoid, but he lost his footing and fell over. Miko tried to kick Enoch, but Enoch dodge her strike and hit her with his shield. She fell on Max. Enoch tossed his shield to the side and held his sword above his head and readied to deliver the killing blow.

"No!" Four arms yelled. He punched Ah Puch off of him. He ran a the deity and delivered an uppercut, causing him to flip around as he went crashing towards the pyramid. Max and Miko were knocked off the pedestal with the sword and fell onto Ah Puch. "I, uh, meant to do that." The Omnitrix started to time out. Jack was reverted back to being human. "Not good."

As max ran back to stop Enoch, Ah Puch got up.

"Grandpa!" Miko and Jack screamed. Max looked to the kids and then to the made up his mind.

As Ah Puch chased after the kids, Max jumped and wrapped his arms around his the god's neck.

"How's about we ground old beak face." Max suggested.

Miko and Jack ran underneath Ah Puch's legs and pushed on them, knocking him over. Now he was down and out.

"The sword!" Miko shouted. She and Jack ran towards Enoch.

"Enoch." Max turned his attention to the current threat.

"At last!" Enoch pulled the sword from the stone. "The ultimate weapon!" Enoch held the Sword of Ek Chuaj above his head. "The world show kneel before us." Seconds later, the sword's blade crumbled into gold dust.[Which is fitting, because besides being the Mayan God of War, Ek Chuaj is also the God of commerce.]

"Woah. What happened?" Miko asked.

Max, who was still standing on the passed out body of Ah Puch started to laugh. "Ah hahahahahaha!" He had gotten all worked up for nothing. "Guess that's what happens when your 'ultimate weapon' is five thousand years old."

The ceiling started to rumble.

"Think that sword was booby trapped?" Miko asked as she, Jack, and Max ran to the exit.

"Enoch, get out of here!" Max shouted. Enoch did not head Max's warnings and was trying to collect the gold dust that was once the sword of Ek Chuaj."

"Grandpa, time to go!" Jack shouted as he and Miko tried to move Max. Jack saw that the Omnitrix had recharged early. He selected an alien and transformed.

Outside...

As the temple crumbled, XLR8, Max, and Miko watched it go down. The Omnitrix timed out, reverting XLR8 back to Jack.

Max shrugged as the temple was no more. "Well, I sure could go for some dung beetle stew. It's even better reheated you known."

Jack, Miko, and Max laughed.

"Glad to have you back grandpa." Jack said with a smile on his face.

"Thanks guys, and I'm sorry." He knew that he acted like a jerk. "You know, I think it's finally time to put away the old plumber suit."

"Because you finally found the sword of Ek Chuaj?" Miko asked.

"Well that, and it's giving me a really uncomfortable rash."

"So, how're we going to get back?" Jack asked.

"Well, I left my phone back in the Rust Bucket, so we can't call the 'bots." Miko said.

"Grandpa, you wouldn't happen to know how to fly a helicopter would you?" Jack asked.

Max smiled slightly.

As the helicopter flew back to the Rust Bucket, Jack thought of the flash of red light that he saw the split second before he zipped out with Max and Miko as XLR8.

Unknown location...

Enoch had survived. He had been warped into the chamber of a man wearing a massive suit of metal armor. His helmet had three black horns and a red T shaped visor. He had black shoulder pads. The symbol of the Forever Knights was upon his chest. Most of his armor was obscured by the darkness of the room that he and Enoch were in. This was the Forever King.

"Enoch, you've failed me for the last time." The Forever King said. A red blade stabbed Enoch through the back, sending him to a place known as the Dark Nebula, a location used to store failures. There, Enoch will experience a new form of pain and suffering as he is slowly tortured over the course of a century, but to the rest of the universe, it'll be a few months.

As the Forever King turned away from where Enoch stood, his robotic servant, the forever ninja approached him with a metal disk in hand. The King took the disk and pressed a button on the underside of it. A hologram of the Decepticon spymaster Soundwave was displayed. "Soundwave, have you selected the minions for my plan?" He asked.

Soundwave nodded.

"Good. Send me their files, then, tell your master of your plan to defeat the Autobots. Then, report to me when the task in complete. Our benefactor will be most pleased to hear of your progress. It is time to begin operation deceit."

Chapter end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What a twist! Soundwave's working with the Forever Knights. Well, not exactly. He's actually working with a much more powerful organization. One that is more resilient than even Marvel Comics' HYDRA. A group that has had many different faces, but always has the same goal, the enslavement of humanity. One that in this universe, was thought to have been destroyed by two legendary heroes. It has one immortal leader who has taken just as many faces as the organization itself.
> 
> To find out who this enemy is, come back next time for the next chapter, which are Arrival of the Passing Through Kamen Rider.


	47. Chapter 47: Arrival of the Passing Through Rider

The following takes place between Kamen Rider x Super Sentai Super Hero Taisen, but before Kamen Rider Taisen. Also, this is gonna be a rather short one.

Hikari Photo Studio...

Tsukasa Kadoya, the tenth Heisei Rider, was looking at the backdrop in Hikari studio. It was an odd one to say the least. It was a picture of the Earth with three different symbols forming a triangle around it. One was a silver circle with two green triangle that formed a vertical hourglass. The second was a red emblem that Tsukasa had encountered before. The third was of an R that was highly stylized, but the R was grey, so it could mean anything.

"Tsukasa-kun, whatcha looking at?" Kivara, a tiny silver bat asked as she flew over to Tsukasa.

"It's the backdrop Kivara. I don't understand it."

"Yeah, but why don't you head outside to see what this world is like."

"I guess you're right." Tsukasa exited the room with the backdrop and walked through the hall. He was seen by one of his friends Natsumi.

"Oh, Tsukasa-kun, where're you heading?" Natsume asked.

"Out. I'm going to go see what's in this world."

"Well I'm coming too." Natsume said.

"Fine." They walked out to find themselves in Bellwood. It was night time outside.

Tsukasa's clothing changed. He went from normal cloths to white armor. He still had his camera, its strap around his neck. "This's rather strange." Tsukasa muttered. "Let's go find Optimus."

"But why him Tsukasa-kun?" Natsume asked.

"The backdrop has the Autobot logo on it. He probably knows what the other two logos are."

"Anybody thirsty?" Kivara asked.

"No, why?"

"Look at the studio."

"Eh?" Natsumi was hopelessly confused. The studio's exterior was that of a restaurant call Mr Smoothie.

"Tsukasa!" Yusuke shouted. "Look." He pointed at the Nemesis.

"Crap." Tsukasa muttered. "We gotta-" He was interrupted as the ground started to shake. "What's that?"

"G-g-giant!" Eisuke shouted at the top of his lungs. He was pointing at Way Big as he walked through the streets.

"Woah." Yusuke had only seen one thing like that before, Kamen Rider J. "You think he's working with Megatron?"

"Doubt it. That dial on his chest, it matches the symbol on the back drop."

Way Big was shot at by the Nemesis. He was hurt. "Okay that's it." Way Big jumped up and grabbed the Nemesis. He landed in the bay near Bellwood with the Nemesis in his hands. "You guys are so out of here." He could be heard saying. From the bay, Tsukasa and co. could see Way Big as he jumped up as high as he could, getting out of sight of them.

"Well, that was anticlimactic." Kivara said.

"But ignoring that, the question remains, why were we sent to this world by the backdrop?"

"We could go ask Optimus-sama." Kivara suggested.

"MIght as well." Tsukasa agreed. "Natsume, Yusuke and I will go find the 'bots. You and the other two stay here."

Tsukasa got on machine decader, a white, black, and magenta Honda DN-01 that was stylized after his rider form. Yusuke got on the TryChaser 2000, a custom version of a Spanish motorcycle.

Tsukasa activated a gps that the ratchet of another universe created to help him locate the autobot base. He drove off to the base, with Yusuke in tow.

Tsukasa had a realization. 'What if this is a world without riders?' He asked himself as he drove down the streets of Bellwood.[About this being a world without riders; Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! *inhales deeply* Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! There's already been three riders in this universe, and in a few years, there's gonna be nine(Those being #1,#2,Mh,Dr,#3,Ch,Gh,Sp,Nc)]

Tsukasa was taken out of his thoughts when he heard something in his head.

"Are the Decepticons gone?" Someone that Tsukasa knew all too well asked.

Then someone that Tsukasa didn't know replied. "Yes. Tennyson threw them away like the rubbish that they are."

"Was Soundwave told of the full specifics of our plan?"

"No. The Decepticon actually thought we were going to help his master Megatron. As Starscream said, his vow of silence has fried his processor."

"What of Team Nadir's progress?"

"The freaks and the sorceress have found the first key and after giving it to Megatron, I had the Combatants steal that key as well as the second one. The bug was destroyed, but the loss of one Kaijin is of little concern. Now the destroyer, the mutant, and the hunter are tracking down the final two keys."

"Good. Though we were defeated by this world's first two heroes long ago, we shall return to finish what our predecessors started."

The voices stopped. Tsukasa knew something bad was going to happen. He then heard a different voice in his head.

"Onore Decade!"

"Narutaki?"

"Your presence in this world has changed the course of history. There were to be no riders in this world until the year 2014. Sadly, the reality of the current situation is burning me internally. In order to save this world, you have to lend the powers that were entrusted to you to this world's current defenders!"

"What?"

"Allow both the Transformers and the humans that both fight alongside them and aid them to transform."

"Huh?" Tsukasa was still confused.

"A leader chosen by the core, a gentle giant, a silent scout, the rookie, a commander who has traveled the stars, a mother who protected the earth from the criminals of the stars, a demoman, a child of two worlds, a morally ambiguous matter copier, a warrior who had suffered loss but will find love, a mouthy girl from another land, and a young woman who appears to be a human, but is more than she appears. They shall be the allies that you'll have by your side."

"Anything else I should know?" Tsukasa was confused as to why Narutaki, the man who has been working against him since he began his journey was helping him.

"Find the boy who wears the watch. You and him shall deliver the final blow."

"Boy with the watch?" Tsukasa repeated that to himself.

Yusuke pulled up beside his friend. "Tsukasa, look." He pointed at the military base that was up ahead.

"Huh? That's not the Autobot base, or is it?"

Soon, they got to a gate. A soldier was stationed there.

"This is a restricted area. Head back to where you came from or else."

Tsukasa held out his wallet, which had a badge that showed that he was a member of the Plumbers. "The name's Tsukasa Kadoya, me and my partner Yusuke are here to see William Fowler."

The guard had been told to let anyone who has a Plumber badge in. "Should I tell Agent Fowler that you're here to see him?" He asked as he opened the gate.

"Don't. I like surprising people."

"What every you say sir." The soldier saluted Tsukasa. "Fowler should be in hanger E."

"Thanks." The two riders drove into the base.

The drove down the roads on the base. They went by hanger A. Then B, followed by C and D. They came to hanger E. They parked their rider machines in front of the massive hangar doors. The went entered the hanger via a much smaller door.

When they were in the hanger, they saw Ratchet working the monitors while Fowler paced back and forth.

"So let's just review; we've lost contact with Team Prime along with Gwen, Miko, Raf, Kevin, and Jack, plus Azmuth won't answer any of our calls. Things are looking pretty bleak."

"The 'bots are in trouble?" Yusuke asked.

"Guess so." Replied Tsukasa. "Stay there." Tsukasa walked toward the federal agent and the Autobot. Fowler was visibly shaking.

"Don't give into despair Fowler." Tsukasa said. He held out his rider card.

"What the? Who're you?" Fowler asked. "I don't remember you. When'd you get here."

"I got here a few hours ago." Tsukasa placed on the camera like buckle of his transformation belt, the Decadriver. "But as to who I am, I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider, and it's best if you remember that. Henshin!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter end.
> 
> Author's note:
> 
> The third to last chapter is done. When we come back next time and the time after that, we'll see what Narutaki was talking about.
> 
> For those who don't know, most of the characters who appeared in this chapter are from Kamen Rider Decade.
> 
> Tsukasa Kadoya: Kamen Rider Decade; A man who wanders from world to world, searching for a place to end his journey.
> 
> Natsume Hikari: One of Tsukasa's friends. Despite what Narutaki says, she doesn't believe Tsukasa's the devil.
> 
> Yusuke Onodera: Kamen Rider Kuuga; He's just along for the ride across realities.
> 
> Kivara: A member of the Kivat family. She allows Natsume to transform into Kamen Rider Kiva-la. She's a friend who started out as a double agent.
> 
> Eijiro Hikari: Natsume's grandfather. A kindly old man who helps out his granddaughter and her friends. He can be more than a bit crazy.
> 
> Narutaki: A mysterious man who has worked against Decade in the vast majority of their encounters, but this crisis is an exception to the rule. He claims that Decade will destroy all worlds.


	48. Team Prime Vs part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Part one of the finale. Team Omnitrix has to deal with a resurgence of several of the villains that they have faced in the past. This is definitely not a revenge plot. There's something bigger in the works. And who is this guy that claims to just be passing through?

The Nemesis, Ninety six hours after the Destruction of Darkmount...

"Idiots!" Megatron was furious. "I'm surrounded by idiots!" He stormed over to his throne. A Vehicon that got in his way was tossed to the ground. Its head was unintentionally stomped on.

"Lord Megatron, this is merely a setback in our plans." Shockwave spoke cautiously around his angered master. "Allow me to proceed with my research into project predacon so that I may-" Shockwave approached a computer console that Soundwave was standing near, the silent Decepticon got in his way.

Soundwave used one of his tentacles to connect to the computer system. A collection of images was the mug shots of the following villains; Doctor Animo, Charmcaster, Vince 11, Thumbskull, Frightwig, Acid Breath, Rojo, and Sixsix.

"Soundwave, what is this?" Shockwave looked over the pictures.

Soundwave responded with an artificial voice. He sounded like Gamma from Red vs Blue. "Over the past two and a half months I have been sending Laserbeak to observe conflicts between Jackson Tennyson and the multiple foes he has encountered. During that time, I have also learned of an item that could power a weapon that we could use to annihilate the Autobots and their human allies."

"And that matters how?" Megatron questioned his normally silent communications officer. "We've already tried forming an alliance with that monstrosity Cylas. The human factor will always be in the Autobots favor."

"Cylas had his own agenda that was not compatible with ours. While it is true that Animo has the desire to rule the earth, his path to conquest do not interfere with our operations."

"But how do you expect to gather them? According to this, they're all locked up." Asked Knockout as he looked over to what the status of the various organics.

"I am well aware that all of the beings that we shall potentially employ are criminals. That is why I procured this." Laserbeak flew overhead and had the Staff of Ages in its claws. The cyberbird dropped it and Soundwave caught it. "The Staff of Ages. A weapon that activates in the hands of a sorcerer, or in that of a Prime."

"A sorcerer? Please Soundwave. Has that vow of silence shorted out you mind? There's no such thing as magic."

"On the contrary Starscream, what is referred to by lesser beings as magic is either advanced technology or mana manipulation."

"Tell me Soundwave, what item are you trying to acquire?"

"The Sub Energy. An extremely volatile substance."

"Sub Energy? Humans couldn't have figured that out. Right?"

"Correct Starscream. Humankind did not produce this sample of sub energy on the Earth, it was given to the Earth branch of the Plumbers many years ago and is kept in Mt Rushmore."

"So you want us to crack open the head of some guy carved into a mountain?"

"If only it were that easy. The Sub Energy is stored deep in the base, the only way in are with several keys, all of which are stored in various places around the United States."

"Tell me Soundwave, was this plan solely yours, or did you have outside help in coming up with this scheme?"

"Yes lord Megatron. I had assistance from this man." Soundwave opened a ground bridge. Out of it walked the Forever King in his full battle armor. Behind him were two others, the Forever Ninja and a figure whose identity was shielded by a black cloak.

"Who is this?"

"Allow me to introduce myself." The Forever King bowed as a show of respect, not one of submission. "I am Driscol, the Forever King. As to how I came to be acquainted with Soundwave, the employers of my cloaked friend here contacted us and told us that we had a shared enemy. The Autobots and their allies."

"You seek to form an alliance with the Decepticons?"

"Yes. But, all I require of you is for you to provide support for the ones that Soundwave has chosen to hire."

"Very well Driscol. By week's end we shall crush the Autobots and take this planet for ourselves."

Later, Bellwood...

A helicopter flew over the city. In it were two jewel thieves. The one that wasn't flying the helicopter opened up the duffle bag that was in his lap.

"The perfect crime." The crook said with a handful of gems and rings in his hand. "We got the loot and made a clean getaway." Something tells me he just jinxed it.

Stinkfly flew into the line of sight of the two thieves. "Oh, I wouldn't say that." Yep. He jinxed it as much as Jinx's original design jinxed her in America. "The name's Stinkfly, and this joy ride's over. Land this thing. Now." He ordered.

The thief that was holding onto the loot took aim at Stinkfly and fired at him with an AR-15. Stinkfly moved to get out of the way of the burst of five bullets. The gunner took aim again and fired five more rounds. Again, Stinkfly dodge them.

As Stinkfly led them into the city, the gunner kept firing at Stinkfly. None of the bullets hit the alien, however, they did hit the skyscrapers. Thankfully, the bullets only hit the concrete, not the glass. Stinkfly kept dodging volleys of bullets.

The Lepidopterran flew by a building where somebody was still stuck on the office doing paper work. He saw Stinkfly fly by, with the helicopter behind him.

The rotor of the chopper hit the corner of the skyscraper.

Stinkfly looked behind him. "Wanna play rough huh?" He turned around. "Now you see me.." He sprayed goo at the windshield of the helicopter.

The pilot was blinded. He flew around wildly.

Stinkfly fired more goo at the rotors, making them stop. The helicopter started to fall out of the sky.

"We're out of control!" The gunner shouted as he held onto his seat. "We're gonna crash!"

Before the helicopter hit the water, the two thieves managed to get out and parachute to safety.

However, Stinkfly flew at one of the crooks, removing him from the parachute. He then did the same to the second thief. He then flew low over the street and dropped them. The fall was not high enough to cause any damage to them.

Stinkfly flew up to the top of one of the skyscrapers, reverting back to his human state of Jack Tennyson.

Jack walked to the edge of the skyscraper and looked as the cops showed up and arrested the jewel thieves.

"This is almost getting too easy. Isn't there a villain left out there who can give me a challenge?" Jack asked.

In a bit of dramatic irony(when the reader/viewer knows something a character in the story doesn't), Jack would get his wish. He was being watched by the Forever Ninja who reported back to its master.

The following day, Camp Watanabe...

Max and a blond haired kid that was younger than Raf walked towards the Rust Bucket.

"Thanks for giving me a ride back home from summer camp Mr Tennyson." The boy, named Cooper Daniels said. "With my parents out of the country and my grandpa sick with the flu, I thought I might have to walk home."

"Heh heh heh." Max chuckled. "Well, I'm glad your grandpa called. After all, what're old friends for?" As they got to the door of the Rust Bucket, Max continued. "And I know you're gonna like Jack, Gwen, and the others. They're all a lot of fun." Max opened the door and walked in. "Hi guys. This is Cooper, the grandson of an old plumber buddy of mine. And uh-" Max saw that Miko and Raf were cowering under the table.

"Doofus! Give me it! You're wasting time!" Gwen groaned as she and Jack fought over a phone.

"I heard it first. I get to call."

The radio host spoke. "Okay, it's time e to pick the winning caller to the premiere of Super Hero Wars and meet the cast in a special VIP party after the movie."[Super Hero Wars is a real movie, although we know it as Super Hero Taisen],

Gwen pried the phone out Jack's grip. Gwen dialed the number, which was 555 453-1450. After a few seconds, there was a reply.

"Hello, you're lucky caller number forty five." The radio host said.

"I won!" Jack tried to get away from Gwen, who still tried to pull the phone away from him. "Give me the phone!"

"You won? I won. Let me talk to him." Jack and Gwen were getting into a sort of tug of war.

"Hello? Is anybody-" Jack accidently hit the end call button on Gwen cellphone. "Well, I guess we'll see if the next caller wants those tickets."

Jack and Gwen were both furious.

"You owe me two tickets to the premiere of Super Hero Taisen!" Jack spat, pointing at Gwen.

"Yeah right. If I had two tickets I certainly wouldn't give them to a mega nerd like you."

"I have two extra tickets to the premiere." Cooper said.

"What?" Gwen asked.

"Nani?" Jack asked in tandem.

"My uncle worked on the movie. He got me three VIP tickets. One of you could go with me and bring one of your friends, if you want."

Gwen and Jack stared at Cooper. Gwen glanced over to Jack and pushed him out of the way. She ran over to Cooper.

"Where are my manners? Hi Cooper, I'm Gwen." She and Cooper shook hands. "Kevin and I would love to go to the premiere with you."

"Back off bargain bin Mezool." Jack pushed Gwen out of the way. "I got dibs on those extra tickets."

"Is it safe?" Miko asked as she and Raf poked their heads out from under the table. "She saw the Gwen and Jack were still arguing. "Is not!" They went back to hiding.

"This should be interesting." Max said to himself.

Fort Knox...

For Knox is proud to be home to the US federal gold reserve, where over one hundred billion dollars worth of gold bullion is stored." The tour guide said. "Of course for obvious security reasons, the actual vault is off limits to the public." The group looked to see that the vault door was being guarded by what resembled SACT troops. "Now, if you'll follow me, we'll continue on with the tour.

Four people approached the vault. Three of them wore trench coats, the fourth wore normal clothing.

"Hault!" One of the guards shouted. "This is a restricted area. You'll be escorted to the public section of the base."

The three in trench coats removed their trenchcoats to show who they were underneath. IT was the circus freak trio. The fourth snapped her fingers. In a puff of smoke, her clothing changed to that of Charmcaster.

"There's no need for violence." Acid Breath said.

Charmcaster held her left hand in front of her. A spiral appeared in on it.

Meanwhile...

While the Rust Bucket drove back to Bellwood, Miko and Raf sat next to Cooper, while Jack and Gwen sat across from him.

"And I've always been pretty good with computers and stuff like that."

"Cool." Jack said. "I think you'll have a lot of fun with Raf."

"Well, check this out." Gwen said. She turned her laptop to face Cooper. "It's the new XRS-1000 with 4G capability. Use it whenever you want."

"No fair. That's bribery." Jack closed the laptop.

"Oh, and what do you call this?" Gwen picked up a basket full of candy that was next to Ja- wait, what?

"Gwen, we're not all as selfish as you are. Some of us enjoy sharing."

"I'm telling grandpa." Gwen said. Cooper looked at Gwen.

"That what? You're a big doofus?" Cooper then turned to look at Jack.

"Jack, get up here." Max said. Gwen had a mile wide grin on her face.

"Ooo. Busted."

"You two Gwen."

Gwen gasped.

"Are they always like this?" Cooper asked Miko and Raf.

"Thankfully not.'

Jack and Gwen went to the front of the Rust Bucket.

"Take a look at this." Max pointed to a monitor showing footage from the security cameras at Fort Knox. "I just picked this up from one of the security cameras at Fort Knox."

Thumbskull, Acid Breath, and Frightwig entered through the door to the vault. Acid Breath saw the camera and spat at it, causing the screen to go all staticy.

"So what's up with those freaks on the video?" Cooper asked.

Before Jack could say anything, Miko spoke up. "It's just a video." Miko came up with an excuse. "A music video for, uh-"

"Phsyco Circus Freaks." Raf continued.

"That lame story's the best you could come up with?" Cooper said. "My grandpa was a plumber too, remember?"

"Max told him all about you guys and the Omnitrix, the Autobots, the spell book, everything."

Jack and Gwen were taken aback by what Max had revealed. They glanced over to their grandfather, who shrugged.

"So Jack, what's up with the freaks in the video?"

"Long story short, they're some bad guys I fought a while ago."

Gwen dialed up the base. "Ratchet, hey, it's Gwen. We're gonna need Arcee's help. Where? Fort Knox."

Later...

The Rust Bucket arrived at Fort Knox. Waiting at the entrance was Arcee, who was using her Sadie disguise.

"Maybe Cooper should stay here." Max didn't know what was going on inside.

"I'll keep an eye on him grandpa." Jack placed his hand on Cooper's shoulder. "He probably wants to see the Omnitrix in action anyway.

Soon...

Arcee, who was now using her smaller robot mode, Jack, Max, Cooper, and Gwen entered the room that had the entrance to the vault.

"Where is everybody?" Jack asked.

As they walked towards the vault, they saw two of the guards pretending to be chickens.

"They've all be hypnotised to think their chickens." Arcee was confused.

"Since when can the circus freaks hypnotise people?" Jack asked.

They came to the vault, which was partially melted.

"Now this seems more like Acid Breath's MO."

"Uhg. Gross." Gwen hated the smell of the partially melted door.

Shots were being fired at them. Some of the guards were up on a catwalk and were shooting at them. They were drooling like they were asleep.

"Why're they firing at us?" Cooper asked as he and the others took cover. "We're the good guys."

"Yeah, we get that a lot." Gwen said as Jack looked to see that the guards that were shooting at the ones that thought they were chickens.

"Those chickens are gonna get fired." Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed into XLR8.

"Woah! That's even cooler in person than grandpa described." Cooper was amazed.

XLR8 had a smug grin on his face. "You think that's cool, what this." XLR8 lowered his visor. "Let's go Arcee."

Arcee lowered the power setting on her blasters. She took aim at the guards on the cat walk.

XLR8 zipped off and grabbed the two that were pretending to be chickens and deposited them in barrels.

Arcee jumped up to the catwalk. "Look, I don't wanna hurt you guys." They started shooting at her. XLR8 came up from behind the Autobot and moved her out of the way of each shot that was fired at her. "Guess the feeling's not mutual."

Arcee slammed into one of the guards. XLR8 slapped the second with his tail. The third and final one was knocked out when Arcee and XLR8 both side kicked him. The guards passed out.

A missile was fired at them. XLR8 grabbed Arcee and got knocked to the floor. Two more guards pointed their weapons at the very fast alien and the autobot. They then saw Max and Gwen and pointed their weapons at them.

The two members of the Tennyson family gasped.

Before the trigger on the missile launcher could be pulled they were struck by a forklift.

"How'd you do that?" Gwen asked.

With a wrench in hand, Cooper said: "I said I was pretty good with mechanical stuff."

Soon after, XLR8 and Arcee ran into the vault, Cooper, Gwen, and Max walking in after them. What was in the vault was shocking. The gold was still there. All of it.

"All the gold's still here." Gwen was just as surprised as I was.

"Okay, let me get this straight, the circus freaks break into one of, if not the toughest bank in the world, hypnotise the guards into thinking they're chickens, but forget to steal any of the gold?" Arcee was trying to make sense of this.

"Maybe they were after something else. Check this out." Cooper had found that one of the gates with the iron bars. It was a staircase that was hidden by the gold bars and a few panels.

As Max, Gwen, Cooper, and Arcee made their way down, XLR8 zoomed in ahead of them before reverting back to Jack.

"Woah." Jack looked around at all the strange devices. "What is this place?"

Max had fond memories of this cylinder shaped room. "A blast from the past."

"How so?" Arcee asked.

"It's an old Plumber's base."

"Like the one in Mt Rushmore?" Gwen asked.

"Not exactly." Max walked down into the room. "At the height of Plumber activity on Earth, some of these satellite complexes were established across the globe in hidden locations like this one." Max saw what looked like a picture frame. "Once we brought down Vilgax the first time, these annexes weren't needed anymore. So we eventually shut them all down."

"But what did the circus freaks want here then?" Arcee asked.

"I don't know. And that's what really bothers me." Max blew the dust off of the picture frame. "Jack, take a look at this."

"What is it grandpa?" Jack took a look at what his grandpa was holding. It was a photo that had two girls that were about Jack's age. One had black hair and green eyes, the other had brown hair and black eyes. Both of them wore Plumber suits like what Max had.

"Recognize either of them?"

"Should I?" Jack asked.

Max pointed at the one with green eyes. "That's June."

"What?"

"You're surprised that there's proof that your mom was in the Plumbers?"

"No, it's just that, wow. My mom looks" Jack didn't want to say hot. "amazing."

The Nemesis...

"Megatron, we got what you wanted." Charmcaster said as she exited the ground bridge along with the Circus Freaks. "Whatever it is." She tossed it to the Decepticon warlord.

"Excellent. Despite serving the Decepticon cause for less than a day, you have surprised me on how useful you've been, unlike some of my other subordinates." Megatron turned to Soundwave. "Soundwave, have you located the second key?"

"Yes lord Megatron. It is in a city known as Seattle."

Acid Breath spat at a Vehicon, melting its face off. "Okay Lord Buckethead, what's the deal with teaming us with Silver over here? Only to have us pull of the heist of the century, and all we have to show for it is that stupid device. We don't even have a gold tooth to show for it."

"Your notions of wealth mean very little to me." Megatron said. "However, when we Decepticons are victorious, you and your comrades will be compensated in full."

"That still doesn't explain why you sent us to Fort Knox." Charmcaster butted in. "I take it that breaking into Fort Knox is not the kind of thing you 'cons do. So why'd we risk our lives to get this?"

"As to the specifics of this plan, direct your questions to Soundwave."

"Okay, Soundwave, why'd we break into Fort Knox and left all the gold alone?"

Soundwave played an audio clip of Darth Vader. "I find you lack of faith disturbing," He said in his gamma voice: "Mr Breath, or may I call you Acid?"

"From now on, you can call me boss 'cause I'm taking over this operation."

"Since only one of us can have that position, allow me to cast my vote." Soundwave snapped his long fingers. From the shadows about two dozen black suited human sized beings that wore gas masks surrounded the Circus Freak Trio. In what seemed like a second or two(mostly because it was), the Circus Freaks were swiftly defeated.

"Charmcaster, would you like to challenge my command?" Soundwave asked.

"I'm good."

"Excellent. Now that that's out of the way, let us get back to the business at hand."

"Megatron." The Forever King said as he entered the Bridge of the Nemesis. "I require the use of your insecticons to procure something from the trophy room of the Galactic Enforcers."

"And what might that be?"

"The only man made device that is based solely on human technology that has managed to critically wound and Autobot."

Soundwave played a clip of Hakaider(who at the time had Silas' brain in it) fighting Arcee and Jackwolf. Hakaider was shouting 'Hakai! Hakai! Hakaida!' as he fired at Arcee and Jackwolf. Then a clip of Arcee getting mutilated by Hakaider was played.

"I never thought I'd see the day when a human could make a robot better than us." He smiled darkly, impressed with how these humans were handling things. "He shall make a fine addition to the Decepticons. Retrieve this robot.

Meanwhile...

The Rust Bucket drove down a road, but no one was behind the wheel.

"Uh, grandpa, who's driving?" Gwen asked.

"Autopilot. Cooper fixed it after our last encounter with Enoch." Max replied as he worked on adjusting some settings on the radio of the Rust Bucket. "It's a real work saver."

"Your grandpa says my brain must look like the inside of a computer."

Max pressed an orange button, causing a screen to descend from a panel in a cabinet. It showed a map of the Earth with various dots in places like the Great Wall of China, Sydney Australia, and other locations. The screen then zoomed in on the United States which had fifteen dots. Among those locations where Detroit Michigan, New Orleans, San Francisco, Chicago, and Seattle. It was the one in Seattle that was blinking red.

"These dots represent all the closed Plumber facilities in the US." Max explained as the kids and Arcee looked at the map.

"Hey, why's the one in Seattle Washington flashing?"

"It's an alarm. That can't be a coincidence."

"Let's go kick some circus freak butt!" Miko was ready to see the smack down.

"Unfortunately even in turbo mode it's doubtful we could get there in time. To stop them."

"Well, while you guys were playing two square, I did mess around with the turbo boost system a little."

Raf sat on the couch and buckled in. Miko sat next to him. Jack, Arcee, and Gwen saw at the table, facing the front. Max got in the driver's seat and buckled up. Cooper sat next to him and did the same.

"Okay. Let's put the spurs to her and see if she's got some extra giddy up."

The Rust Bucket assumed its boost mode and rocketed off. The speed of the Rust Bucket was causing the flesh on the faces of the humans to ripple. The same was even happening to Arcee it was so fast."

"Gotta admit, the kid definitely has some skills." Miko said.

The Rust Bucket zoomed down the road.

Later...

Despite moving at speeds that could give XLR8 a run for his money, the Rust Bucket still took several hours to get to Seattle.

"Coming up on downtown Seattle." Max said. "We should throw out the anchor and start slowing this puppy down."

"Uh oh." Cooper realized that he forgot something.

"Please tell me that you didn't forget the super clock over to go with the super clock up."

"Don't worry. I got this." Jack said as he activated the Omnitrix. He transformed into Heatblast, who managed to stay on the roof of the Rust Bucket by melting his feet onto it.

"Whoa!" He shook around as he almost fell over. "Guess I'm not aerodynamic."

Heatblast flung several fireballs at the road ahead of the Rust Bucket. It melted the asphalt of the road slightly. The Rust Bucket slowed down, but not by much.

"Okay. Good plan, just need to do more of it." He walked to the front of the roof of the Rust Bucket and fired a stream of flame at the road. He had to keep it up for as long as possible. The Rust Bucket started to slow down. It was heading towards the Seattle space needle. It slowed down to a crawl and then to a stop. The Rust Bucket was inches from the building.

The Rust Bucket assumed its normal state. Gwen, Cooper, Miko, Raf, and Max got out of the RV. Heatblast jumped off the roof.

"Well, we made it."

"Something tells me the roads won't." Miko pointed to the ruined road that was all bumpy and warped.

The sounds of people screaming was heard. A swarm of wasps flew out of the building's entrance. They flew up in a spiral pattern.

"Okay. I knew the circus freaks had flies. But wasps? What the hell's going on here?"

The wasps flew at Heatblast knocking him into a car. They formed into a humanoid figure. A man with raggedy clothing. It was Clancy.

"The bug guy? I thought we left him in New York." Miko remembered the incident at the nuclear power plant.

Clancy removed his clothing to show his new form. He was more insect than man now. He had pale green skin, murky green armor. Two sets of arms, one being two small to use, the other set ending in three long, sharp claws. He had some sorta 'beard', clawed teeth, stalk eyes, and two antennae. He had three toed feet that were on legs that had a digitigrade stance.

Three motorcycles, each one having two humans(?) that wore all black and had gas masks, approached. The beings could be heard chanting one thing. "Yee!"

"Okay what's going on here?" Heatblast asked as the three motorcycles stopped near the mutated clancy.

Arcee's motorcycle mode drove out of the Rust Bucket. Her holoform was on it. Sadie got off of the motorcycle and said: "Okay partner, you deal with these guys."

"But how? I might melt you."

"Don't worry. I coated myself in pyronite wax. So unlike the youtube comments section, I'm flameproof."

"Whatever you say 'cee." Heatblast climbed onto Arcee's vehicle mode. Arcee had given him full control of her body while it was in vehicle mode. He engaged the clutch and revved the engine. The tire spun as he did a 180 and headed towards Clancy and the combatmen. He sped up as he drove past them. When the combatmen realized they had been passed, they turned around.

When one of the motorcycles used by the combatmen got within ten feet of Heatblast, the minion that was riding as a passenger jumped off and tried to punch the Pyronite, but Heatblast had other ideas.

He held onto one of the handlebars and lifted himself off of the seat. He then side kicked the gasmask wearing goon, knocking him away. Heatblast sat back down on the bike.

Clancy, who had taken off, landed in the middle of the road. As the three motorcycles circled around him, he hissed: "Dezzztroy Tennyzzzon buzz." Clancy took off again.

Heatblast was leading the three motorcycles away from the Rust Bucket. They were gaining on him. The motorcycle, whose passenger had tried to tackle him, popped a wheelie and was heading towards him. Heatblast looked over his shoulder and saw this. Heatblast lifted his right leg up and kicked the bike's front wheel, causing the pursing bike to shake wildly before crashing.

Another one of black motorcycles got along side the blue one that Heatblast rode. The driver of that bike tried to punch the Pyronite, but Heatblast blocked it. The passenger tried to do the same, but Heatblast slammed him with his flaming fist. The combatant then tried to kick Heatblast. Its kick was caught. In response, Heatblast swung his left leg up and to the side, knocking both combatmen off the motorcycle.

The final motorcyle was coming up. Heatblast did a ninety degree turn and came to a screeching stop. The final combat man was defeated when the front wheel of his bike hit the rear wheel of Arcee's alt mode.

Heatblast revved up the engine and headed back to the Rust Bucket. Seconds after he started back up, Clancy landed on the blue motorcycle behind Heatblast. The mutant insect tried to claw at the Pyronite, but the alien caught his hand. Clancy was now on the front of Arcee's vehicle mode. Heatblast punched Clancy in the gut before punching his face. When Clancy tried to claw at him with his talons, Heatblast did a backflip and landed on the ground, holding onto the very tip of the bike's seat. He held himself up and then got back in the seat of the bike and punched Clancy twice more, knocking him off.

Heatblast drove by the Rust Bucket when he knocked Clancy off. Heatblast drove a few blocks down the road.

As Clancy got back up, Heatblast had turned around and was heading towards him. When he was less than twenty yards from Clancy, Heatblast jumped off of the motorcycle and into the air. As he came down, Heatblast generated a cone of fire around his legs that began at his right foot. He collided with Clancy, kicking him back down. Heatblast landed on the motorcycle and after getting a fair distance away, he came to a screeching stop. He got off and ran towards Clancy, but what happened next was one hundred percent unexpected.

Sparks came off of Clancy.

"What the?" Heatblast was confused as to what was going on.

Suddenly, Clancy exploded in a twelve foot wide fireball. Yeah, he f*cking exploded.

Max, Arcee(who had taken control of her true body), Miko, Raf, Cooper, Gwen, and even Heatblast himself could only stare in shock at what had just happened before their very eyes. When the smoke from the blast cleared, nothing was left of Clancy.

Miko, as always was the first one to break the silence. "I'm sorry, but what the hell just happened?"

"I think Heatblast's flames caused the pheromones that the bug guy used to react, causing them to violently explode." Raf explained.

"What?" Heatblast asked.

"Yellowjacket was pretty much a walking bomb, and he didn't know."

"Then why didn't he explode back in the nuclear power plant?" Miko asked.

"We can argue continuity later. Right now we have more important things to worry about." Max said. "Come on."

The group ran into the building and into an elevator. "The Plumber's Annex is near the top." Max said as he pressed several buttons on the keypad. The words Access Granted were displayed on the screen. "The Circus Freaks are probably still up there."

As the elevator rose up, Miko turned to Heatblast and asked: "So Jack, what was it like killing someone?"

"What kind of question is that?!" Heatblast couldn't believe that Miko would ask that question.

"Just wondering."

"Okay." Heatblast nervously said. "Well, if you have to know, it felt like I was putting him out of his misery. I thought he was just going to pass out, not be a real life Kamen Rider monster death."

"But it was pretty cool." Arcee added.

"Yeah, I guess."

The elevator started to shake.

"What's that noise?" Gwen asked.

"It's coming from on top of the elevator." Heatblast said as he looked up. A black fist punched through the ceiling of the elevator. It ripped open the top, allowing those in the interior to see who was on top of it. There were two villains, Hakaider and Rojo, who now wore armor that had the same color scheme as a Vehicon.

"Rojo! How'd she get back her alien tech?" Raf asked.

"Better question, how did Hakaider get back to Earth. Last I checked the Galactic enforcers had him."

"Sorry if we can't stay and chat, but this elevator's no longer in service." Rojo deployed a blade from her wrist and used it to cut the cables of the elevator car. She and Hakaider grabbed onto the cables and rode them to the top as the car fell to the ground.

"Everybody grab on!" Arcee shouted. She assumed her regular robot mode and deployed her wrist blades. She crouched down in the elevator and extended her arms, causing the elevator to slow to a stop.

Soon...

While Heatblast flew up the elevator shaft, Arcee climbed up. Gwen and Miko were holding onto her legs while Max, Raf, and Cooper held onto her shoulders and back. The got to the floor that they wanted to get to. Max and the boys climbed off of Arcee's back and into the large open room. Arcee then got in and helped the girls up. Arcee assumed her human sized robot mode as Heatblast landed next to her.

They hid behind some rubble as they saw Charmcaster, Hakaider, and Rojo looking for something. They were opening up bins and dumping out the contents. In one of them, Charmcaster found numerous folders. The ones that were on the top had the following labels: Project Double Typhoon, Project Gackt, Project Kaizorg, Subject GiGi, and Project Lightning.

"Charmcaster? Is there anybody who hates us that isn't involved in this thing?"

"You should've seen the looks on their faces when I cut the main cable. Heh heh. Priceless." She turned to Hakaider. "Yo, Senor Roboto, did you manage to catch a glimpse of them falling?"

Hakaider took a few seconds to respond. "File found. Transmitting." Hakaider said with a fully mechanical voice.

Charmcaster objected to this. "Hold on. How come you gotta waste them instead of me?"

"Just lucky I guess." Rojo said. Charmcaster glared at her.

Heatblast came up with a plan. "Okay, let's split up and surprise them from both sides." He said. "Arcee and I'll distract them."

"Hello Jack." Someone that Jack and the others knew all too well announced.

"Oh shit I know that voice." They looked behind them to see Animo standing on a loft. To his right was an Autobot Bumblebee sized mutated bat. To the left was an insecticon in its robot mode that had murky green armor and yellow optics. It had what resembled scales on its shins and forearms.

"You're overdue for a visit from Doctor Animo."

The mutated bat unleashed a sonic scream that caused Arcee's ears to spark and toss Heatblast out of the building and onto a balcony.

Miko(yes, Miko, the girl who liked sneaking off with the 'bots until she was eighteen, she hid. Mostly because this was a super power beat down) and Raf hid as Gwen, Arcee, Cooper, and Max ran up to Heatblast.

"Jack, you okay partner?" Arcee asked as she helped Heatblast up.

The mutated Insecticon burst through the wall and came to a stop. The bat flew out of the hole that was made, Animo on its back, grinning evilly.

"You're still alive? You're making me look bad!" Rojo turned her armored hand into a blaster, which was as smaller version of the ones that the Vehicons use. She fired at Gwen and Max.

"Vortress nebulae." Gwen generated pink shield that blocked the blaster bolts and deflected them away.

"An invisible force spell? That's all? You've had a copy of my spell book all this time and you haven't taken off the training wheels?" Charmcaster was disappointed that Gwen hadn't taken risks. "Either you're too stupid to conjure the more complex spells, or you're just too scared to use them." She said that last part in a mocking tone. Gwen was enraged by Charmcaster's words. "You're not a sorceress, you're a joke."

Gwen growled. She and Max ran at Charmcaster and Rojo while Heatblast and Arcee ran at Animo's mutants.

The mutated insecticon howled as Heatblast flung fireballs at it. It unleashed a fire breath from its mouth like the Predacon. Heatblast shot a stream of flames at it to try to overpower it. Arcee was shooting at the mutated bat. It unleashed a sonic howl, which much like the one that Jack's loboan form unleashed, was visible.

Cooper saw the two alien themed heroes fight the mutants. He turned to see Gwen perform a back flip to avoid red mana bolts that were being shot at her by Charmcaster, who was floating up in the air. The sorceress fired several more bolts, which Gwen blocked by projecting a shield.

A yellow blaster bolt hit near Cooper's feet. "Hakai! Hakai! Hakaida!" Hakaider was firing at the boy, but missing due to three things; him having a Vehicon's brain, Cooper being a main character, and Hakaider like seeing his victims run in fear.

Max meanwhile dodged Rojo's blade as she thrust it at her. He held the cybernetic criminal over his shoulders and threw her into the building. Hakaider detected the Rojo was down. He pointed his blaster at Max and fired at him. However, all the shots he fired were dodged by the retired Plumber.

Inside, Rojo rubbed her head as she got out of the rubble pile she landed in. She then saw what she and the other had been sent to find. She grinned evilly.

Hakaider was trying to strangle Max, but the man was strong for one his age and tossed the robot off.

"Got it!" Rojo said as she ran out.

Max's jaw dropped when he saw what Rojo held. "The key! Of course. Somebody stop Rojo from getting away with that thing!" He shouted.

Heatblast slammed his fists on the ground, causing the concrete to melt, trapping the mutated insecticon in it. Heatblast then saw Rojo. He ran at the Cybernetic criminal and tackled her. He pinned her down. "Hand it over lady, or you're gonna get a the worst sunburn." As Heatblast issued his threat, the Omnitrix timed out. Jack chuckled nervously.

Rojo had an angered glare. Jack grabbed the key out of Rojo's hands but before he could get away, Rojo grabbed his pant leg, making the emerald eyed teen trip, dropping the key, which was caught by Cooper.

Hakaider pointed his blaster at Cooper as he approached him the boy.

"You want this so bad?" Cooper asked. He tossed the key off of the building, but it was caught by a hand made out of light green crystals.

Vince flew up. He had the moon behind him as he raised his right arm.

"VInce?!" Jack was shocked. Vince was in the Null Void.

The mutated insecticon broke out of the concrete. It transformed into its bug mode, a bombardier beetle and picked up Rojo and Hakaider in its claws.

Gwen and Charmcaster where having a face off. Charmcaster waved goodbye as she was picked up by the mutated bat.

"Wish we could teach you a lesson you deserve Darby, but we have have a date to take over this mud ball." Vince said as he flew off, following the others.[BTW, Vince is going to be the only one that refers to Jack as Darby. Everyone else who has a bone to pick with Jack will call him Tennyson.]

As the villains flew off, the mutate insecticon started to drool. It landed on Hakaider and Rojo, the latter being upset by that.

"Hey, how come I'm stuck with the rider from deceptimaggot?" Rojo asked as she tried to block the drool.

"Just lucky I guess." Charmcaster mocked.

Gwen, Jack, Arcee, Max, and the kids could only watch as the united villains flew off.

"We need to get to the 'bots." Max said with great urgency in his voice.

Back at the Autobot base...

The Rust Bucket had been taken back to the Autobot base via a concealed Ground Bridge. June was present, as were all of the Autobots and Kevin. June had been told what had been stolen. She was in as much disbelief as her father was.

"Are you absolutely sure they took what you think?" Asked June, who was panicking.

"Yeah, what's so important about that key anyway?" Miko asked.

Max explained: "Many years ago, the Plumbers helped capture an alien convict. And, as a show of gratitude, his race gave us a sample of what they referred to as Sub Energy."

"What's sub energy?" Asked Raf.

"A subatomic power source so powerful, it makes anything humans have look like third grade science projects."

"I sense that there's a catch." Said Jack.

"Correct. Despite its enormous potential for good, the sub energy was too unstable and dangerous to use. The plumbers decided it should be put away for safekeeping, within a super secure forcefield inside the Mt Rushmore complex."

"And the only way to shut down the forcefield was to join the two weirdly shaped keys that got stolen from Seattle and Fort Knox?" Gwen asked.

"Close. There were four keys. And if the first two were taken, then that means the other two have already been taken." Max replied.

"But this doesn't make any sense. How'd the circus freaks figure any of this out?" Asked Kevin.

"Because they're not the string pullers" Said June. "The circus freaks couldn't steal water from an aquarium."

"Meaning, that whoever masterminded all of this, has knowledge of top secret intel." Ultra Magnus reasoned.

"Most likely the Decepticons, given the appearance of the arnor this 'Rojo' wore, as well as Animo's mutated Insecticon."

"Perhaps." Optimus said. "However, the Decepticons might just be pawns in this game as much as the alliance of Jack's adversaries."

"Huh?" Miko asked. "Aren't the Decepticons the main villains?"

"Translation the 'cons are probably getting conned." Kevin replied.

Something hit Jack like a ton of bricks. "Remember how Ghostfreak was calling the shots from beyond the grave?" He asked.

"And how Vilgax was the one sending all those robots and bounty hunters after you." Arcee added.

"Just to be clear," Ratchet began. "we're dealing with someone who has more influence than Megatron, and is more subtle than Ghostfreak. You do realize how unlikely this sounds."

Miko found a white board and a few dry erase markers. "Anybody got any ideas?"

"Ideas about what?" Asked Bulkhead.

"About who the big bad is."

"Well, we can definitely rule out Vilgax, seeing as both Rojo and Vince have either failed him or betrayed him." June said.

Miko drew a crude drawing of Vilgax's face and put an X over it.

"And it's definitely not Silas. The Hakaider that was there had a robotic brain." Arcee said. Miko then drew a picture of Breakdown's head and crossed it out.

"Enoch got crushed by rubble. But he might've been teleported out." Jack said. Miko then drew a picture of Enoch's helmet and put a question mark next to it.

"We haven't heard from Zombozo since Jack scared him off." Arcee said. "Plus he's not that good of a leader." Miko drew Zombozo's head and crossed it out.

"Airachnid has been known to manipulate others." Optimus added. "But she was imprisoned in a stasis pod."

"And I don't think Megatron would let her out." Smokescreen said. Miko drew Airachnid's head and crossed it out.

"Paradox said that there's different dimensions." Jack stated. "Maybe it was... I don't know... Shocker." He shrugged.

"Really?" Arcee rolled her optics. "What makes you think that?"

"Those guys wearing the gas masks were shouting 'Yee!' And you know just as well as I do that that's the battle cry of the Shocker Combatmen. Plus when I killed that bug guy, he exploded."

"Hold up." June couldn't believe what she heard. "You did what? And he what?"

"As Heatblast, I killed the bug guy we fought in New York, only he was more bug than man now. I kicked him and that caused him to explode." Jack saw the looks that his mother, Kevin, and the other 'bots were giving him. "I was just as surprised as everyone else."

"So just to be clear, the fictional organization known as Shocker is the mastermind?" Miko asked. "Surrrrrre." She drew the shocker eagle and crossed it out.

Meanwhile, on the Nemesis...

Megatron was given the second key by Hakaider.

"Soundwave, now that we have the first two of the keys, what is our next course of action?"

"The Autobots will in all likelihood attempt to find the keys and destroy them. We must fight them on our own terms."

"And how will we do that?"

Soundwave was following the "Draw them out into the open."

Back at the Autobot base...

"So we have only two suspects, the presumed to be dead Enoch and the 'cons."

"This can't be right." Ratchet said.

"What's the problem?"

"This." Ratchet displayed an video feed of the Nemesis flying over Bellwood.

"Hold on, is that the Nemesis?" Jack asked as he pointed to the Decepticon warship.

"Yes, but why are the 'cons attacking Bellwood?" Wheeljack asked.

"We can worry about that later, right now we have to protect the humans, Autobots, let's-"

"Let Jack deal with it." Max said. "You remember how powerful Way Big was?"

"I do."

"So we get Jack to deal with the 'cons and pass it off as an attempted alien invasion, not an alien war being fought on Earth.

On the Nemesis...

"Soundwave, you're sure this will draw the Autobots out?" Megatron asked.

"Affirmative lord Megatron." A ground bridge opened. Out from it ran Jack Tennyson, who activated the Omnitrix and turned into Way Big.

"Alright, let's finish this." They heard Way Big say.

"Fire!" Megatron ordered.

A beam of energon energy was fired at the To'kustar.

"Ow!" That caused Way Big more than a bit of pain. They fired more blaster bolts at the massive alien.

"Okay that's it!" Way Big jumped and Grabbed the Nemesis. He landed in the bay near Bellwood with the Nemesis in his hands. "You guys are so out of here." He jumped up as high as he could, which was into the stratosphere. He spun around, and after a few seconds, let go of the Nemesis when he reached the Apex of his jump. The decepticon warship was sent away from the Earth, past the moon, and was soon out of sight of the Earth.

In the Nemesis, the Decepticons were wildly shaking around as the tumbled through space.

Megatron saw Hakaider with the two keys.

"What is the meaning of this!"

"Statement: Decepticons are a threat to Sacred Hemongony Of Cycle Kindred Evolutionary Realm. Long live Shocker!" Hakaider vanished with the two keys.

"No!" Soundwave couldn't believe that he had been betrayed.

"Soundwave!" Megatron was furious.

Later...

Jack had gotten back to the base.

"Well, that's done with."

"So, the 'cons are gone."

"For about three years." Ratchet corrected.

Optimus had a slight smile on his face when he heard that. "But the fact of the matter remains, we must deal with the threat at hand. Ratchet, open a ground bridge near Mt Rushmore. As for the rest of us. Autobots, transform and roll out!"

Optimus turned into his alt mode, a semi truck, the only difference being that it now pulled a trailer.

The ground bridge portal opened. The Autobots drove through the portal, following the Rust Bucket through it.

The Autobots were driving down the road. In the Rust Bucket, Gwen and Jack looked at the monument, seeing that they seemed to have gotten here first.

"Guess we beat them here." Wheeljack said.

A laser blast hit the Rust Bucket. It swerved. In response, the Autobots transformed. The Rust Bucket rolled off the road.

From the Rust Bucket, the Tennysons, Miko, Raf, Arcee, Kevin, and Cooper could see the outlines of Soundwave, Vince, Charmcaster, Acid Breath, Frightwig, Thumbskull, Rojo, several mutated insecticons, Sixsix, Animo, Hakaider, and the Forever Ninja.

"Welcome. I wish I could promise you a swift demise, but alas, I believe my new partners have other ideas." The Forever King said as he joined his subordinates. "Behold, Team Nadir!"

Inside the Rust Bucket, everyone was shocked.

"Oh man." Miko knew that things were not going to end well.

"Team Prime, you and the Tennysons shall fall before Team Nadir!" The cloaked figure declared declared. He removed his cloak and showed his true form, that of the villian Shadow Moon. "And then this world shall fall before the might of Shocker!"

"Shocker? Uh oh." Gwen just realized that Jack, believe it or not, was right.

"We're hosed." Kevin stated.

Gwen tried calling Ratchet to get out of there, but she wasn't getting a signal, and this was after Ratchet upgraded her phone.

Back at the Autobot base...

Ratchet had lost contact with the others.

"Ratchet, what's going on?" Fowler asked.

"I can't contact Optimus. They're alive, that I'm sure of, but I can't even detect their comm signal."

"So you know where they are, just you can't speak with them?"

"In a manner of speaking, yes. I could contact them if I could break through the jamming field, but it's too complex for me to even begin to decode it. It would be much easier if Azmuth was here to help us, but June has been trying to reach him, but to no avail."

"So let's just review; we've lost contact with Team Prime along with Gwen, Miko, Raf, Kevin, and Jack, and Azmuth won't answer any of our calls. Things are looking pretty bleak."

"Don't give into despair Fowler." Said a Japanese man who wore white and black armor. He had a pink camera around his neck.

"What the? Who're you?" Fowler asked. "I don't remember you. When'd you get here."

"I got here a few hours ago." Said the man. He placed the Decadriver, a camera themed transformation belt. "But as to who I am, I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider, and it's best if you remember that. Henshin!"

To be concluded...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A.N. When we meet for the last time in this story, it's time for Decade to save the day. But still, if we're going to end this tale, we might as Marvelous says 'Make it showy!'. When we meet next time, the powers of the first fourteen heisei riders will be used to defeat Team Nadir, as well as their true masters, Shocker!
> 
> Here's the list of the members of Team Nadir as well as a brief description of them incase you started on this chapter:
> 
> Driscoll/The Forever King(Enoch's boss; first appeared in A non-Cybertronian Relic Hunt)
> 
> Forever Ninja(Robotic shinobi, first appeared in A non-Cybertronian Relic Hunt)
> 
> Doctor Animo(Mad scientist; first appeared in Devolve)
> 
> Animo's monsters(mutated forms of animals from both Cybertron and the Earth; first appeared albeit in different forms in Devolved)
> 
> Charmcaster(Sorceress; first appeared in Breakout)
> 
> Vince(Omnitrix created mutant; first appeared as an antagonist in Eleven)
> 
> Rojo(Cyborg criminal; first appeared in Cybernetic)
> 
> Frightwig(Discount Medusa Phantom; first appeared in Fears)
> 
> Acid Breath(Freak of nature; first appeared in Fears)
> 
> Thumbskull(Circus strongman; first appeared in Fear)
> 
> Sixsix(Alien bounty hunter; first appeared in Hunter and Hunted)
> 
> Hakaider(Robotic brain; first appeared in The Rose and Violet and Android, albeit with a different brain his head.)
> 
> Hooded figure/Shadow Moon(Kamen Rider villain; cameoed at the end of A non-Cybertronian Relic Hunt, voice only in Arrival of the Passing Through Kamen Rider)
> 
> Clancy(formerly, deceased)(Bug based kaijin; first appeared in Cold and Flu season)
> 
> Soundwave(formerly, betrayed)(Decepticon spymaster; first appeared in The Living Starship)
> 
> Something to take note of: Jack has scored his first kill that was all his doing. Clancy, who was destroyed by Heatblast's flaming drill kick(a rider kick, a move that's gonna be used a lot in the next chapter). The foot soldiers that he beat don't count, since they were never alive. And the goat like alien from the Rose and Violet android doesn't count as a solo kill due to the assistance he got from Kikaider.
> 
> And for those that hadn't guessed it, that fight between Heatblast and Clancy was taken from Kamen Rider The First.


	49. The Finale! Team Prime Vs SHOCKER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all come to this. Team Prime and the human allies they have made in the past year will face off against the greatest threat they've gone up against thus far. Shocker. But they won't fight this battle alone, or in their normal forms. Tsukasa Kadoya and Yusuke Onodera have arrived to lend Team Prime the powers of the Heisei Riders. Autoriders, henshin and roll out!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pre-Chapter Author's note: This chapter's gonna follow the episode Ben 10 vs Negative 10 part 2 until one point. It also might be the longest, which is fitting, seeing as this one's gonna be the finale.

Where we left off...

The man, named Tsukasa Kadoya placed the card into the slot on his buckle. "Kamen Ride." He flicked two levers on the Decadriver, causing the buckle to rotated. "Decade." Tsukasa was transformed into Kamen Rider Decade.[If any of you don't know what Decade looks like, just look him up.]

"By the Allspark." Ratchet was amazed.

"Thanks. Ratchet, open a ground bridge. Yusuke and I will deal with this." Decade said as he got on machine Decader, which appeared behind him.

"Wait, how'd you know his name was Ratchet?" Fowler asked. "And what do you mean by passing through?"

"I travel to other worlds." Decade turned to Kuuga, who drove the Trychaser 2000 up to Machine Decader. "Let's go Yusuke."

"Well, I can't get you right to Optimus' location, but I can get you within ten miles of the mountain."

"We'll take what we can get." Decade said.

The portal opened and Decade and Kuuga drove through.

 

At Mt Rushmore...

Arcee was taking a tally of which villains were present. "Animo, the Circus Freaks, Sixsix, Vince, Hakaider, Rojo, Charmcaster. Scrap."

"Who're the metalheads?" Cooper asked.

"The silver one is, and I can't believe it, but Shadow Moon, a bad guy from Kamen Rider Black." Jack explained. "And the white and the maroon one must be Forever Knights. But what's with the cape and horns on the white one?"

"Since we took out Enoch, maybe he's their new leader?" Miko suggested.

"Or maybe this Enoch guy was never really in charge." Kevin said.

"Vince, you and Animo's insecticons deal with the Autobots." The Forever King ordered.

"Heh heh. With pleasure." Vince chuckled. He flew over at Optimus and delivered a powerful punch that knocked him into the forest, tearing down trees in the process.

"Optimus!" Smokescreen deployed his blasters and took aim at Vince. However one of the mutated Insecticons flung spikes at him. He dodge them, and good for him, seeing as they exploded second later.

"What kinda insecticons are these?!" Bulkhead shouted as he got flames shot at him.

"A major improvement. Don't you think?" Vince asked as he shot flaming crystal shards at Optimus. The Prime deployed a shield that he used to block them.

Bumblebee was facing off against a mutant insecticon that could spit acid. Ultra Magnus was engaged by one that unleashed a sonic shriek. Wheeljack was fighting one that had blades on its arms like a praying mantis.

Back with the Rust Bucket, Thumbskull ran up to it. The moment he touched it he was zapped. After yelling a bit and stumbling back, thumbskull fell down.

Metal panels fell down and covered the Rust Bucket's windows. An aura of electricity surrounded the Rust Bucket.

Rojo fired her blaster, but the bolts she fired did no damage to the camper's armor.

Five rectangular panels on the front of the Rust Bucket unfolded. A blue beam was fired at Rojo, knocking her into the hill.

Charmcaster had a grin on her face as she levitated chunks of the ground and sent them flying at the Rust Bucket, but those too had no effect.

Hakaider and Sixsix took aim and fired at it with everything they had in their arsenals. Again, the camper was unharmed.

The Forever King realized something was up. "Wait. Do not enter that vehicle." He warned.

"Let're rip thumbs." Acid Breath said as Thumbskull ran at the Rust Bucket. He ripped off the door and saw what he thought was Miko, Raf, and Cooper cowering in fear. "Knock knock. It's payback time." Acid Breath spat at the kids, but found that his breath passed right through them. They were revealed to be nothing more than a hologram. Which when it deactivated, it was revealed that the hologram was being made by a spherical object that had a blinking top. "Hey! What gives?"

Hakaider approached the torn open Rust Bucket. "Observation: Recreational Vehicle deserted. Sole occupants, soft light projections. Translation: We have been deceived."

The sphere rolled towards Hakaider and the circus freaks.

"I hate those guys." Groaned Acid Breath before the sphere exploded, sending the trio flying back.

The Tennysons and their friends had made their way out of Rust Bucket in a way that was most likely BS.

"Better hurry before they figure out what happened." Max said as he, Cooper, Miko, and Raf looked at the smoking entrance of the Rust Bucket.

"Too late." Miko said after they turned to face the Forever Ninja as well as a trio of monsters. They were all robot based. The names of the monsters were Deathgaron, Cublican, and Croyzel[all those beings monsters from Black RX].

The Forever Ninja drew his swords. The three kaijin got ready to attack.

"Ah!" Cooper screamed as he and Raf ran.

"Nobody likes a show off cyber-snake." Kevin said as he touched the shoulder of the Forever Ninja, his body taking on the characteristics of its armor.

Four Arms, Arcee, and Gwen stood beside Kevin. Four Arms punched the Forever Ninja, denting its armor and sending it flying into a tree. Arcee shot at Croyzel. The heatwave causing robot blasted a beam of artificial sunlight at Arcee, who managed to avoid being hit. Gwen fired mana bolts at Deathgaron. The insect based robot tried using its blades to cut Gwen, but she either blocked them or dodge them. Kevin punched Cublican, knocking its arm off, which grew back. Kevin got into a fight with the robot.

Arcee managed to dodge all of the blasts that Croyzel shot at her. Eventually, it ran out of juice.

"Perfect." Arcee grinned. She ran at the monster, jumped up and kicked it. She jumped off of it, did a backflip and stuck the landing. She was facing the opposite direction of the robot as it sparked rapidly and exploded in a massive fireball.

"Combustus separartes!" Gwen said. Her eyes glowed. Many stands of mana energy grabbed onto Deathgaron. They ripped the monster apart and caused those parts to burst into flames.

Kevin finished off the monster he was fighting by punching it's chest and ripping out its heart. The monster fell to its feet as the colors faded from its body.

[Yeah, I know those three kaijin seemed to go out like chumps, but they weren't the originals, just inferior duplicates.]

Four Arms tried to punch the Forever Ninja, but the robot dodge every one of the Tetramand's strikes, that is however until it got sloppy and allowed the four armed alien to deliver a punch that sent it flying into the Rust Bucket.

Charmcaster looked to see where the Forever Ninja came flying from and saw Max and Four Arms.

"There they are."

"You guys get to the hatch. I'll meet you there." Four Arms said before jumping in the direction of the members of Team Nadir.

When he landed, he slammed two of his hands on the ground, causing a mini earthquake that headed in the direction of the Rust Bucket.

Cooper, having gotten separated from Raf, looked around. He heard hissing. He looked to see a snake monster jump at him.

Raf found Cooper standing in the middle of an open area in the woods.

"Cooper." Raf turned the ten year old to face him. "Cooper, are you okay?"

"No. I'm totally freaked out."

"Join the club." Miko said as she and the other, minus Jack, approached.

"Bat!" Gwen shouted as Animo's mutated bat flew at them. The ducked as it passed over them. Arcee got up and fired at it, her shots missing.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me." Arcee moaned as she saw several bug themed yummies approach her and the others. The Autobot femme then had a realization as she fired at them, knocking cell medals off. "Wait. Those robots, and now these yummies. Oh scrap. Jack was right. Shocker is the one calling the shots."

The kamakiri yummy flung green energy blades at Arcee, injuring her. The Kabuto yummy charged at the Autobot, but she kick it at the Batta yummy, sending both of them into a tree.

"Arcee. I remember you." The insect themed Greeed known as Uva said. He took a dozen cell medals and shattered them in his fist, creating dozens of waste yummies. "Get them!" He ordered.

Arcee's optics widened at the sight of the swarm of enemies charging at her and the others.

Gwen generated a dome of manna to block to waste yummies, but that wasn't going to hold forever.

"There's too many of them." June said. "Even if we can get to the entrance by the time dad and I can find an open the hatch, they'll be all over us like stink on a skunk."

"Then what'd we do?" Miko asked.

Cooper had a solution. "Follow me." He said. Gwen kept the barrier up as she and the others followed Cooper.

They stopped in front of a rocky hill.

"Okay, so they can only come from one side." Kevin said in a less than optimistic fashion.

Somehow, Cooper was able to open the hatch.

"You found it. Great job." June patted Cooper on the back as they ran to the entrance.

"Well he said he was good with mechanical stuff, but I didn't know he was this good." Gwen said as Cooper was shaking.

Arcee caught Cooper before he could fall over. "You okay?" She asked. Cooper nodded.

Max, being the last one in, closed the hatch. He and the others slid down the base. They entered a massive room that had a ceiling so high that Optimus could stand here and still have room to spare.

Max and June ran over to a control panel that was underneath a large computer screen. Max sat in the chair and was pressing some buttons to try to activate the security systems while June looked around for something to repair Arcee's wound.

"Grandpa, we can't just leave Jack up there alone." Gwen said.

"We're more help to him in here." Max said as the screen showed footage of Four Arms fighting Sixsix.

 

Topside...

Four Arms got his jump suit signed by the bounty hunter. He slammed his fist on the ground, causing the Sotoraggian to be tossed into the air. Four Arms ran up and punched Sixsix, knocking him away.

Acid Breath, Rojo, Hakaider, Thumbskull, Frightwig, and Charmcaster surrounded Four Arms.

"Come on, I'll whip you all with three arms tied behind my back."

Charmcaster waved her hand. Two of her rock monsters charged at Four Arms, but were quickly crushed. He saw the Forever King and grinned. He cracked his knuckles as he approached the apparent leader. However the Forever Ninja got between its master and Four Arms.

It drew a metal rod from its back and pressed a button, causing it to turn into an energy bo staff.

Four Arms just grinned as he approached the Forever Ninja. He threw a right hook, but the ninja dodge it. The Forever Ninja then thrust the staff at Four Arms, slamming him into the wall.

As he got up, the Omnitrix timed out, reverting Four Arms back to Jack.

The Forever Ninja, Acid Breath, Thumbskull, Frightwig, Sixsix, Rojo, Hakaider, and Charmcaster approached Jack.

From the control room, June could only watch in horror as her son was about to be beaten to a pulp.

Max tried activating the defences, but found that they wouldn't respond.

"Who's hungry?" Jack asked, getting into a fighting stance. "'Cause I got a couple of knuckle sandwiches right here."

"Attack ride: Blast." The Decadriver announced. Dozens of magenta blaster bolts hit the members of team nadir.

"What the hell was that?" Charmcaster asked as she recovered from the blows dealt to her.

"Observation:" Hakaider began. "Rider particles detected."

"Rider particles? What're those?"

"The signs that someone like us has been through here." Decade said. He was invisible. He became visible and was standing next to Jack.

"Kamen Rider Decade." Jack was fighting and failing to hold back the smile that was building up on his face. "This is awesome!"

Kuuga ran up and stood at the other side of Jack.

"Decade and Kuuga. Wow this day's pretty weird." Jack tapped Decade's shoulder. "Um. Hate to be a bother, but could you guys help me out a bit here?"

"Need us to take down these bad guys while you recover?" Kuuga asked.

"Yeah." Jack nodded. "But please don't kill them, they're not monsters. Well Hakaider and Vince are, but just take them down, not out."

"Okay." Decade folder up the ride booker. "Let's go Yusuke."

"Right!" Kuuga nodded. He and Decade ran at the members of Team Nadir.

Decade was surrounded by the circus freak trio and Sixsix. Frightwig flung her hair at the passing through rider, who ducked to avoid being hit by the metal balls that were on the end of each strand. He inserted a card into his belt.

"Kamen Ride: Riderman." Decade was transformed into the fourth Showa rider. After dodging several blast fired from Sixsix's pistols, Dec-Riderman inserted another card. "Attack Ride: Rope arm."

"Let's tie this up." Dec-Riderman said. He swung his arm around and flung it at Frightwig. The rope wrapped around her, tying her up.

Thumbskull charged at Dec-Riderman. When the strongman collided with the rider, he was reverted back to his regular rider form. Thumbskull started to squeeze the passing through rider. Decade got his hands out of the strongman's grip and placed another card in. "Attack ride: Elec hands." The gloves of Decades armor turned blue. He touched them to Thumbskull and sent hundreds of volts of electricity through the freak, stunning him and making him drop the rider.

Decade saw Acid Breath spit at him. He placed another card into his belt. "Attack ride: Shield module." Decade got fourze's eighteenth module, the space shuttle shaped shield. Decade then looked at his weapon and found that it was melted after Acid Breath's signature ability hit.

"Okay, let's see how you like this." Decade placed yet another card in.

"Attack ride: Water Module." A light blue sprocket appeared on Decade's leg. He jumped at Acid Breath, kicking him over. He poured water into the freak's mouth.

Decade then saw Sixsix aim at him. He placed one more card in his belt. "Attack Ride: Illusion." Multiple copies of decade surrounded Sixsix.

Confused, the bounty hunter fired at the first one, but found that it was a fake. The Decades ran at Sixsix, punching and kicking him until he was beat. The Decade duplicates disappeared, leaving only one remaining.

Kuuga had to go up against Charmcaster, Rojo, Hakaider, and the Forever Ninja. Charncaster fired bolts of energy at the rider, which he dodged. He switched into Dragon form. He picked up a stick off of the ground and transformed into into the Dragon Rod. He used it to block several of Charmcaster's bolts before she slipped up and left an opening for Kuuga to exploit. He flipped her on her back by striking her legs.

Hakaider deployed a blade(which was a modification given to him by the Decepticons). He ran at Kuuga, preparing to strike him, but the rider switched to Pegasus form and grabbed Hakaider's gun. It turned into the Pegasus Bowgun, which he used to try to aim at Hakaider's head, but found that the android was moving too fast for even Pegasus form's enhanced senses to track. Hakaider delivered a punch to Kuuga, reverting him to Mighty Form, then to his basic growing form. Hakaider picked Kuuga up and prepared to snap his back ala Bane from Batman, but he was punched away by Diamondhead.

"Thanks." Kuuga said as Diamondhead helped him back up. Kuuga switched back to Mighty Form.

"Don't mention it. It's an honor fighting alongside you mister Onodera." Diamondhead was having a bit of a fan boy moment.

Though Hakaider was down, there was still Rojo and the Forever Ninja.

"You take Robby-san, I'll get little red." Diamondhead said. He handed Kuuga a rather long crystal shard.

Kuuga switched to titan form, the shard of crystal turning into a sword called the Titan Sword.

The Forever Ninja drew a katana, it got into a duel with Kuuga.

Diamondhead had formed his hands into hammers and swung them at Rojo, who either dodge them, or got her armor dented by them.

'She gotta have a weak point.' Diamondhead thought. Rojo started slicing at Diamondhead with her blade. "Something tells me she has the same idea.'

Kuuga managed to get the katana out of the Forever Ninja's hands, but the robot was using wrist mounted blades to block the titan saber. Kuuga managed to slice of one of the Forever Ninja's arms and thrust the Titan Sword directly into its chest, right where the heart would be. The Forever Ninja was dead, or so he thought.

Diamondhead found what he thought was a weak spot. A scarab shaped thing that seemed to have folded up wings on it. The only problem was that Diamondhead had a hard time trying to get Rojo to turn her back to him. However, fate must've been smiling upon him, as Yusuke swung the tian sword at Rojo's back, causing her to get shocked and fall over unconscious.

Decade walked over before turning back into Tsukasa. Kuuga turned back into Yusuke.

"Thanks." Yusuke said to Diamondhead as the Omnitrix timed out.

"Don't mention it."

"Jack. Where's Optimus?" Asked Tsukasa.

"He's fighting Vince." Jack replied. 'Hey, where's Vince?' Jack asked himself.

 

With the Autobots...

The Mutated insecticons had been beaten, but Vince was still proving to be more than a match for the 'bots.

"Is that really all you got?" Vince asked as he lifted Bulkhead over his head with no effort. He tossed the massive green Autobot at Optimus, who flew out of the way to avoid being hit by the his flying ally.

Inside the base...

Arcee, the Tennysons, Miko, Raf, and Cooper watched on the monitor as Jack, Tsukasa, and Yusuke talked.

"Who's that?" Miko asked.

"Tsukasa Kadoya. Or Kamen Rider Decade." Arcee replied.

"From the TV show?" June asked.

"Apparently." Arcee was unsure how to feel. This truly was a strange day for her.

Something beeped.

"Got it." Max said.

Arcee tilted her head. "Got what?"

"The base's outer defences."

"Oh, well... Sorry, but they're not need." Miko pointed to Jack and the two riders apparently laughing at something that Yusuke said.

The memebers of team nadir had gotten back up.

"Okay, spoke too soon." Miko said. "Let're rip Big M T."

Max pulled a lever.

 

Topside...

As Tsuasa and Yusuke got ready to transform, a turent came out from behind where the three of them were standing. It fired a blue blaster bolt at team nadir, knocking them away.

"What was that?" Tsukasa asked.

"Thank you grandpa." Jack said.

Tsukasa heard this. He asked: "Your grandfather did this?"

"Yeah, come on, this way." Jack led Tsukasa and Yusuke to the hatch which opened. The three of them slid down. They hit the hard metal floor and got up, all of them winching as the did so. Max had run at the entrance to the hatch with a grey cylinder in hand.

"Gwen, a little help." The orange haired girl ran over to Max. "It needs a push."

"Gakeas Zipuctus."

A strong gust of wind through the cylinder up through the chute and towards the hatch.

On the other side, the members of Team Nadir, as well as Uva and his forces were gathered.

"You guys aren't getting away that easily." Rojo blasted the hatch open. She was going to jump down into the chute, but she heard something banging against the side of the chute. "Like they say, age before beauty." She pushed Uva in. He got the cylinder as he came to a stop. But it was only then that he realized what it was.

"Uhg. Son of a-" The charge went off and Uva was destroyed. Three cores came from his defeated body. A kuwagata, a taka, and a batta. The kuwagata and batta medals were destroyed, but the taka medal was still intact. It fell down the chute.

The Forever King looked over his shoulder to see what is perhaps the most lazily hidden camera ever.

"Nothing will stop this little homecoming." The Forever King then fired a beam from the visor on his helmet, destroying the camera.

Back inside the base, Max heard what the Forever King said. He and June both recognized the voice.

"Glad that's over." Jack breath a sigh of relief. He looked through all the rider cards that Tsukasa had on him. There were ones he never though were a thing. Like mini Den-O or a Final Form Ride for Ichigo. Some of the cards confused Jack. Two in particular, both for transformations. One was of what looked like a samurai, the other, well, Jack thought it looked like Optimus. Actually, there was a card of Optimus.

"Something tells me it's only just begun." Tsukasa said. He held out his extended hand. "Jack, please give those back."

"Sorry." Jack returned the cards to their owner. "What's with the Optimus Kamen Ride?"

"Met him once." The passing through rider responded.

"I think Tsukasa's right." Max responded. "This ain't over, not by a long shot."

"What do you mean?" Raf asked.

Max brought up the clip of the Forever King.

'Nothing will stop this little homecoming.'

"There's something about what his highness said that doesn't sit right with your mother and me, Jack."

June pulled up a clip of a bald man who wore a plumber suit. He orangish brown hair. She pressed play.

"Driscoll. ID number 12906." They used a voice recognition software and found that the vocal patterns were a one hundred percent match.

"June, what is it?" Kevin asked. "What's wrong?"

Max responded. "The Forever King is an ex-plumber."

"Plumber?" Yusuke asked.

"Basicly space cops." Miko explained.

"Okay."

"When I was still a rookie, a scandal rocked the Plumber's Earth Branch. Driscoll, one of the veterans was caught stealing advanced technology from the perps we apprehended, and ended up using it for his own benefit." June explained. "Eventually he was caught and thrown out of the Plumbers in disgrace. As far as anyone knew or cared about, nobody ever heard from him again."

"There's a but, I just know it." Kevin said half to himself, half out loud.

"But now it's obvious that he worked his way up through a group of the Forever Knights until he became their leader." June finished.

"So that's how the bad guys knew about the satellite plumber complexes, the sub energy, the keys, all that stuff."

"Any more bad news?" Tsukasa asked.

"Yep. Driscoll knows this base like the back of his hand. He'll find a way in. It's not a matter of if, but when." Max said.

"So what? We just wait for them to barge in the front door?" Kevin asked.

"No, we get ready to fight back." Tsukasa said. "There has to be some way of defending something this big from the inside."

 

Later...

Cooper was repairing a bunch of humanoid robots. Gwen walked up to him. "How's it going?" She asked.

"Good, these security drones are almost ready." He replied.

"Tell me, how'd you open up that entrance without even touching it?"

Cooper took a break from his work and faced Gwen. "Sometimes when I concentrate really hard, I can sorta see inside machines and junk like that. It's kinda like a wifi in my head."

"Cool. Does it work on the Autobots?"

"No, not really. Trying to see inside them just gives me a headache that's worse than when I do it normally."

Cooper pressed a button that caused the robot to activated. He climbed down from the step ladder and picked up a soda can. He tossed it up in the air, causing the drone to target and shoot the can, destroying it.

"Nice job Cooper." June said. She was wearing a suit of power armor that was a lot like the one that Wash now has.

Max was moving a massive saucer shaped object. Max had on an exo skeleton that was increasing his strength.

"Woah." Miko took a picture of Max lifting what ever it was that he was holding up. "You've been working out."

"It's not me Miko, it's this Exosuit. Alien tech that amplifies your own natural abilities." Max placed the saucer on a pile of metal crates. "Cooper fixed it, Raf got it working. Now we just need a little help from Heatblast to finish it up."

"I got it Max." Tsukasa said. He looked through his rider cards and picked one that might help.

"Kamen Ride: Hibiki." Tsukasa was transformed into Kamen Rider Hibiki

 

Soon...

Dec-Hibiki was firing twin streams of flame at the metal, melting it. When he was finished, the metal cooled quickly. He removed the card and was reverted back to Tsukasa.

"I'd like to see Team Nadir get through that." Miko was feeling too confident.

"I wouldn't." Yusuke said.

"We've done all we can here." June said. "I want to double check the sub energy containment field and see if Cooper can do anything to improve it." June turned to Kevin and Yusuke. "You two stay up here."

Tsukasa, Arcee, Miko, Raf, and the Tennysons entered a room that was illuminated by a green light.

Cooper and Raf ran towards the center of the room. "Woah. A real force field."

The others joined the two geeks.

"Too bad the forever king now has the keys to shut it off." Max explained the severity of the situation.

"Well, where is it?" Jack asked, unsure of what he was supposed to be looking at.

"It's right there." Tsukasa pointed at the exact midpoint of the force field.

"What?" June asked as she stepped on a panel on the floor it glew yellow as a rack of visors that looked like the one that Cyclops would wear rose up from the floor.

"The forcefield is just a cloaking device." June grabbed two of the visors and tossed them to Jack and Arcee. "Here, put these on." She handed them to the rest of them, but Tsukasa refused to put a pair on.

"I don't need them, I can see it just fine."

"Okay, then what color is it?" June asked as she put her visor on.

"Under the light of the force field, yellow."

"Okay then."

When Gwen put the visor on, she heard static. "What's with the static?"

"The visors amplify the sound of the force field. The nob on the side adjusts the volume." Max tuned Gwen's visor to the proper setting.

When they did that, all those present could see the sub energy. A tiny ball of yellow energy that was just a bit bigger than Kivara.

"That little thing's the sub energy?" Arcee asked. "Kinda a let down if you ask me."

"I know it doesn't look like much, but the material in that container is twenty times more powerful than the sun." Max explained.

"Mishandle it, and you got an explosion big enough to blow a continent off the face of the earth." June continued. June pulled Cooper's head close to her. She whispered something in his ear.

Later...

As June, Arcee, Kevin, and Max were placing charges on the supports of a bridge, Gwen and Jack were playing rock paper scissors. Miko and Raf were talking with Tsukasa and Yusuke.

"Quit copying me." Jack complained.

"You're the one copying me." Groaned Gwen as she and Jack matched each other in rock paper scissors perfectly.

"What're you guys doing?" Cooper asked as he saw what Jack and Gwen were doing.

"Winner gets your extra tickets." Jack said.

"So, how many worlds have you guys been to?"

"Well, we lost track of the exact number," Tsukasa began. "but we've been to quite a few."

"Cool. Have you met other versions of me? Know any other versions of Team Prime? Been to any universe besides this one that has the Omnitrix?" Miko asked in rapid succession.

"Yeah, as a matter a fact, I've met a version of you that's Kamen Rider Den-O."

"Cool. I think."

"But what about other versions of the 'bots?" Raf asked.

"Met a bunch of different varieties of the 'Team Prime' roster." Tsukasa explained.

"And the Omnitrix?" Raf asked.

"Well, we met a guy who looked like Jack, but he was about your age Raf." Yusuke said. "Don't remember his name. It was either Ben 23 or Jack 23. He was kinda like Tony Stark. Unlike your Jack right now."

"Wait, right now?" Raf asked. "What do you mean? And wait, you've met Iron Man?"

"In a few years, Jack goes from being humble to well, let's just say, a discount you." Tsukasa whispered to Miko, pointing at her.

A beeper went off. A red light on the control panel was flashing.

"What is it?" Miko asked.

"Motion sensor. Come on." Max said. He lead the others out of the control room that they were in and to where the sensor was detecting movement.

Tsukasa held the Ride Booker pointed at the entrance. However, that's not how the bad guys got in. They actually got in by digging a little bit to the right.

The wall was broken as one of Animo's mutants dug its way in. The debris that was thrown about caused everyone to jump back. This time the mutant was a prairie dog. Animo rode atop its back.

"The doctor is in." Animo caused the mutant to use its tail to whip June, Max, Kevin, and Yusuke out of the way. Yususke transformed into Kuuga when he landed. Kevin touched the floor and took on its properties.

Tsukasa and Jack nodded. They both transformed. Tsukasa transformed into Kamen Rider Amazon, Jack was transformed into wildmutt.

Wildmutt ran at the mutated prairie dog, tackling it and knocking Animo off of it.

Wildmutt grabbed onto the mutant's mane with his jaws and started to pull the creature's hair, which caused it to flail around, trying to shake the Vulpimancer off of it. Which it did, flinging Wildmutt against the wall.

Wildmutt and the mutatnt ran at eachother and got into a shoving match.

Meanwhile, Dec-Amazon was fighting several small grasshopper like mutants. Kuuga was helping as well.

Kevin had Animo in a choke hold the mad doctor was trying to get out. "Call off that bucktoothed varmint, or you're gonna be the one who's gonna need a doctor."

The remaining members of team nadir entered through the tunnel that Animo's mutant had dug.

"Cooper! The security drones!" Max shouted as he and June took aim and fired at Hakaider and Sixsix.

The silver, humanoid drones with triangle shaped bodies approached team nadir.

The Forever King's visor glew red. He sent a signal telling the drones to obey him. "I love surprises. Don't you?"

As the drones fired at the kids, Miko and Raf took cover behind a metal crate. June threw several spheres at the drones, which when the hit, were revealed to be smoke bombs. They made a cloud of black smoke that allowed Wildmutt to catch two of the drones off guard and destroy them.

But that wasn't enough.

"Retreat to the lower level." Max shouted, pointing at the building that was at the end of the bridge.

Cooper was being approached by a pair of the security drones and was doing nothing to get away. Dec-Amazon tore the cables that were their legs apart before Gwen could grab him, shouting: "Move it slowpoke."

As Kuuga, Gwen, the kids, Max, June, and Kevin ran across the bridge. Max pressed the activation button on the detonator, destroying the bridge and the robots that were pursuing them.

With Dec-Amazon riding atop Wildmutt's back, the Vulpimancer cleared the jump, sliding to a stop in the sub energy storage room, where Arcee stayed as a last line of defence.

The Forever King saw the destroyed bridge and turned to Animo. "We are in need of a detour."

Inside the sub energy storage chamber.

"Why did those security drones go 'con on us?" Miko asked, suspicious at how strange that was.

"I don't know." Max said.

Kevin returned to his normals state. And started looking around for anything to fight back with.

Dec-Amazon and Kuuga returned to normal as well.

Cooper however suddenly lost it. "Must obey. Must attack Tennysons."

He brought the exosuit back on line and used it to pick up a cylindrical container and try to attack June and the others, but not before Wildmutt could pounce on it, pushing it away.

Cooper hacked into the base and deployed a forcefield around Kevin, preventing him from touching the ground.

"What the heck?! Somebody get me out of here! What's his deal?"

"Somebody must've gotten to cooper during the fight outside. He's hypnotised."

"We gotta pull the plug on Cooper before that exosuit makes a winter coat out of Jack."

"Yeah, but how?" Tsukasa asked. "I can't do that in this world, so do any of you know how to undo hypnosis?"

"Cooper said he can control stuff like a wireless network." Gwen saw one of the visors and grabbed it as the Exosuit pinned Wildmutt and Arcee to the ground.

She placed it on Cooper's head and adjusted the settings, causing Cooper to groan but not before falling unconcious.

"Thanks." Jack said after the Omnitrix timed out, He was being held in one hand by the Exosuit.

"Dad, it's too dangerous for Miko and Raf to be here, Cooper too."

"You're right. Tsukasa, get Cooper out of here." Max said.

Tsukasa nodded. "Follow me." He told the kids. A grew vortex appeared in front of him.

"What's that?!" Miko asked, shrieking.

"It's a dimensional wall, normally it's used to travel to other worlds, but this one'll take you back to the base."

"So it's safe?" Raf asked.

"Yeah."

Miko and Raf, who were carrying Cooper, walked through the wall and entered the Autobot base, much to Ratchet's shock. The wall disappeared. Tsukasa approached June, Jack, Max, Gwen, Arcee, Yusuke, and Kevin.

"So what now?" Yusuke asked.

"No matter what happens to us, we can't let the Forever King get away with the Sub Energy."

"We understand grandpa." Jack said. Max smiled.

Yusuke got in his henshin pose, as did Tsukasa.

"Henshin!" The both shouted.

"Kamen Ride: Decade." They were transformed into their rider forms.

Gwen opened her spell book and got ready.

Arcee deployed both her blasters and her wrist blades.

Kevin touched Arcee's armor and assumed the properties of it.

Jack activated the Omnitrix and transformed into a new alien, Eye Guy.

June placed the helmet of her power armor on while Max activated the exosuit.

They got ready to fight, and just in time, as the seconds later, Team Nadir broke into the sub energy holding room.

"There is no place left to run Tennysons." Said the Forever King.

"Who's running metal mouth? Bring it on man! Bring it the hell on!"

The Tennysons and their allies charged. Max jumped up and sucker punched Animo off of his mutated prairie dog.

June used her Power Armor's power fist to send the Forever Ninja into a wall.

Fright wig smacked Eye Guy with the spheres on the end of her hair. Decade drew the ride booker and turned into into its gun form and blasted Sixsix, who was then tackled by Kevin

Eye Guy blasted Fright Wig away by shooting her with his optical beam attack. He then shot at Hakaider, who Arcee was fighting, trying to say as far away from as possible.

Charmcaster was trying to Hypnotise Kuuga, but she was blasted away by Gwen. Kuuga gave the mana user a thumbs up.

Charmcaster turned to Gwen and said: "Ready to see who's the better speller?"[Well that line's a sin.]

The two magic user glared at each other and then chanted: "Mercuta verditis!" They both fired beams of energy from their hands, Charmcaster's red, Gwen's pinkish magenta.

As the Forever King and the now hooded Shadow Moon approached the Sub Energy field, June and Max got between them and the lock. "We would say it's nice to see you Driscoll, but we'd be lying."

"I'm flattered that either of you would remember me. But where are my manners? Have you met my colleagues?"

A second and third Forever Ninja attacked June and Max, knocking them out of the way.

The Forever Ninja that attacked Max kicked him in the stomach, then in the arms, making Max's Exo Suit spark. The one that attacked tried out maneuvering the powered armored independent nurse.[He he he. The acronym is PAIN, didn't realize it while I was writing it.] The Forever Ninja used Kunai to try to hit weak points in the armor's systems.

As Charmcaster and Gwen were dueling, the latter was starting to get overpowered. "You can't beat me, princess!" Charmcaster gloated.

As Gwen grunted in frustration, she looked and saw Rojo running at her. At the last second she flung her arms to the right, causing both hers and Charmcaster's beams to hit Rojo, sending her crashing into the wall.

Max and June both managed to beat the Robots that were attacking them. June grabbed the head of the Forever Ninja in her Power Armor's hand and crushed it as one would crush an egg. Max however grabbed onto the other Forever Ninja's arms and rip them off.

As Hakaider fought Arcee and Jack, the evil managed to avoid all the shots that were fired at it. However Eye Guy managed to get one shot in on it that froze Hakaider in a block of ice. Wait, what? "Robot on ice. Now that's cold."

"Care for an extra rare cut of Tennyson, my pet?" Animo, who was back on his mutated Prairie dog, asked.

Eye Guy opened a massive eye on his chest and fired a green beam which stunnded the mutant, Arcee then shot he blaster at Animo, knocking him off.

As Animo crashed on the ground, Charmcaster broke off from the duel with Gwen. She reached into her bag of tricks and tossed several rock monster eggs to the ground. Gwen was surrounded by her minions.

"Hated those then, hate them now."

Eye Guy jumped in front of Gwen and was going to fire at them, but the Omnitrix timed out.

As the Rock Monsters charged at Gwen, a couple of cut one of them. Decade had used the Ride Booker's sword form to fight them off.

One was going to pounce on Decade, but it was shot out of the air by Jack, who fired a blaster that looked cybertronian.

"Just like I thought, all bit and no bark."

The cloaked Shadow Moon was handed two of the four keys by the Forever King. He placed them in the key holes that were on the panels that rose up from the floor and turned them. The Forever King did the same.

"Now I shall be the Forever King of the World!" The Forever King proclaimed as he reached for the sub energy. However, his hand went right through it. "What?! Impossible!"

"You can thank Cooper for that." June said. "Hard for you to use something you can't touch."

"But why would you defend a rouse?"

"Driscoll, it is of no Concern. After we destroy you, we'll get the child to open this." Shadow Moon said. "Then we shall be victorious."

Decade recognized the voice of the cloaked figure. "We?" Decade asked after he sliced one of Charmcaster's rock monsters in half.

A logo that was very familiar to Tsukasa and Yusuke appeared on the Forever King's chest plate. It was an eagle that was sitting atop a globe,

"Shocker! But how?!" Kuuga asked in terror. "Why're you here?"

"When Shocker learned of this universe and the creatures that lived in it, they knew that with the kaijin that could be made using the many species, they could finally defeat their greatest enemy, the Kamen Riders."

"But one thing stood in their way." Decade added.

"Let me guess," Jack began. "It's the Omnitrix."

"Yes, but more specifically you Jack Tennyson. You become a thorn in the side to many, and a symbol of hope to even more."

"So what does this have to with us?" Asked Rojo.

"We needed assistance in terminating Tennyson, so my master sent me to convince Soundwave that we would help Megatron take over this world. But we had no intention of doing so. Soundwave was tasked with gathering the enemies of Jack 10 and his allies. From there we needed to get Megatron out of the picture , so we had you defeat the Decepticons."

"So with the cons now hurdling through space after Way Big threw them..."

"Shocker is the sole force that is seeking to conquer this world." The silver and black armored humanoid that had insect like armor and green compound eyes. "And now that you know of our plans, you must die!" Shadow Moon's red bladed sword charged up. He swung it at the humans, autobot, and riders, but before the blow connected, Decade placed a card in his belt.

"Attack ride. Teleport." The good guys were teleported out of there.

"What the heck just happened?" Asked Acid Breath.

"Decade teleported them away." Shadow Moin said. "It is of no concern, soon, they shall come to us."

"Uh, I don't get it." Thumb skull scratched his head.

"Soon, we shall have something they want to keep out of our hands. One of our kaijin shall be sent to retrieve the boy." Shadow Moon turned to face Team Nadir. "However, your are no longer required for our plan to succeed, you may remain here if you wish

 

Topside...

Decade and the others arrived outside of the Plumber Base.

The Autobots were still fighting Vince and were getting beat.

"Leave them alone!" Jack shouted. "It's me you want."

"Oh look. Darby's come to rescue his metal friends."

Jack tried to activate the Omnitrix but found that it hadn't recharged yet. "Guys." Jack said to Decade and Kuuga.

"Okay. Yusuke, let's do this quick." Decade placed a card into the Decadriver that had Kuuga as well as a mechanical beetle.

"Final form ride: K-k-k-kuuga!" The belt announced. Decade turned Kuuga into the Kuuga Gouram.

Vince fired shot fireballs at the Gouram, which Decade had hopped on. Decade swung his sword, blocking the fireballs. Kuuga rammed into Vince, lifting him up into the air as Decade hopped off. When Kuuga was few hundred feet up, he came back down, pushing Vince.

Decade placed another card into the Decadriver. "Final attack ride: K-k-k-kuuga!" The Gouram sped up, then rammed Vince into the ground. There was a thick cloud of dust after they crashed. Kuuga was back to his normal mighty form as he join the others.

When the dust cloud cleared, Vince was still alive, but he was no longer mutated.

"What? I'm back to normal? No! No! Noooooo!"

"Oh quit being such a crybaby." Arcee took aim at Vince's head, but Jack pushed her arm down.

"He's not worth it."

"Optimus, we need to make sure Cooper's okay." Max said with a great amount of urgency.

The Autobot leader nodded. "Ratchet, open the ground bridge."

The blue green portal opened. The Autobots, the riders, and the humans ran into the base. Cooper, Miko, Raf, Ratchet, and Fowler were waiting for them.

"So, did you win?" Miko asked.

"We didn't, but we didn't loose either." Jack said. "This is far from over."

"How so?" Fowler asked.

"We know the identity of the true enemy." Tsukasa said. "Something Yusuke and I have a lot of experience fighting. Shocker."

"Wait, as in Shocker from the TV show Kamen Rider?" Fowler asked.

"Yeah. Shocker is multidimensional. They can invade any universe, and this one is their next target."

"Hmmm. What kind of enemy is Shocker?"

"Determined. They always come back. Always. It may be under a different face, but they always resurface."

"Kinda like the 'cons." Wheeljack said.

"Is Megatron immortal?" Arcee asked.

"No. What does that have to do with anything?"

"Cut off Megatron's head, the con's will fall apart."

"And if you were to cut of the head of the Leader of Shocker, it'll either grow back, or the head will make its own body, then the head will grow back." Jack said.

"Shocker has been the enemy of the Kamen Riders for decades. Never dying, never fading." Yusuke said. "Shocker had at one point even existed in this world, but it was defeated by the Plumbers.

"But what about right now?" Raf asked. "What're we going to do?"

"Well, at least we have time to cool off before we make our next move." Tsukasa said. "From my last encounter with you Optimus, the Decepticons couldn't locate you. I assume that holds true here?"

"That is correct. But this enemy known as Shocker that we now face is different than the Decepticons."

"Okay, but what about Cooper?" Jack asked. "The Forever King's gonna be looking for him now."

"Jack, it could take them days, or even weeks to find him." Fowler said.

"Agi agi agi!" The unmistakable battle cry of Shiomaneking, or fiddler crab king, was heard. He appeared in a cloud of smoke with ten Dai-Shocker Combatmen in tow.

"Way to jinx it." June slapped Fowler on the back of the head.

"Get the boy!" Shiomaneking ordered.

"Yee!" The Combatmen performed a Sieg Heil salute before running at Cooper.

Jack managed to surprise one of them and punched its lights out. "Oh no you don't." He saw that the Combatman evaporated after it was beaten. "Neat."

"Jack! Behind you!" Miko shouted. Jack glanced over his shoulder to see one of the Combatmen running at him with some sorta dagger in hand. When the Combatman swung at him, Jack ducted and avoided it. He grabbed the Combatant's arm and held it against its back. He then kicked it over.

Four of them ran at Jack. He tried to kick them, but he was grabbed and knocked to the ground. The combatmen were about to step on Jack's face, but they were blasted away by Yusuke, who was in Kuuga Pegasus form.

"Thanks." Jack said as he got back up. Jack was about to transform, but the attacking Kaijin spoke up.

"Halt!" Shiomaneking ordered. He had Cooper in his arms. The fiddler crab kaijin's claw hand was around Cooper's throat. "Move one muscle and the boy dies." He threatened.

Jack and Kuuga looked at the Autobots, who despite aiming at the Kaijin, were hesitant to shoot at him.

"Now we take our leave." In a puff of smoke, Cooper, Shiomaneking, and the remaining four Dai-Shocker combatmen were gone.

"So what's gonna happen now?" Miko asked. "Shocker has Cooper. And they're gonna force him to give them the Sub Energy."

"We need to think this over." Optimus said. "While Shocker has Cooper in their possession, they hold his fate. If we rush in head first, they might kill him."

"Optimus, with all due respect, that's not how Shocker works. They only kill you when you've outlived your usefulness." Tsukasa said. "We need to act now."

"But how do you expect us to fight off an army?" Wheeljack asked. "We don't got the munitions or the manpower."

"But we might have an ace up our sleeve." Jack said.

"What do you mean?" Max asked.

"Tsukasa. He always has a trump card that turns the tide." Jack replied, remembering all the times from the show when Decade got a new card, or just pulled a new from out of nowhere, like the final form ride of W. "You have some cards that could help us?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Tsukasa pulled out twelve cards that each had a different rider's face on them. The cards were of Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, Den-O, Kiva, W, OOO, Fourze, and Wizard.

"Rider cards?" Arcee scratched her head. "So you're going to take them all on by using one rider at a time."

"I'm not. You all are."

"Huh?" Miko asked. "How?"

"Like this." Tsukasa tossed the twelve cards into the air. Each one went to a different human or Autobot.

Agito's card went to Optimus, Ryuki went to Bulkhead, Faiz went to Bumblebee, Blade went to Smokescreen, Hibiki went to Ultra Magnus, Kabuto went to June, Den-O went to Wheeljack, Kiva went to Raf, Kevin got W, Arcee got OOO, Miko received Fourze, and Gwen ended up with Wizard.

Suddenly, the belts of those riders appeared on their wastes.

"Woah!" Raf said as Kivat the third appeared in his hand. "But what're we supposed to do with these?"

Arcee, knowing how this works, took the hawk, tiger, and grass hopper medals from the medal holder on the OOO driver. She put them in their slots and scanned them in.

"Henshin." Arcee said.

"Taka! Tora! Batta! Ta-to-ba! Tatoba ta-to-ba!" Arcee was turned into OOO Tatoba combo.

"Oh yeah!" OOO-Arcee said joyfully as she drew the medajalibur and swung it around.

"Woah." Jack realized that he got left out. "Wait, why didn't a rider card come to me? I would've taken Hibiki."

"Jack, you already possess the Kamen Rider spirit."

"Kamen Rider spirit?" Jack scratched his head in confusion. "What's that?"

"Your Omnitrix. It's your transformation device, making it your way of being a rider."[The Omnitrix being Jack's way of turning into a rider is going to be rather literal when Evolved(part 3) is done.]

"Okay, so the power was within Jack all along, what about the rest of us?" Kevin asked, holding the green cyclone memory and the dark purple joker memory.

"Just transform." Tsukasa said. "It's really simple."

"So like this." Wheeljack pressed the red button on the Den-O belt. He then moved the rider pass over the buckle. "Henshin."

"Sword form." Wheeljack was transformed into Den-O.

"I don't know why, but, ore, sanjou!"

"Let me try!" Bumblebee buzzed. Passed the Faiz Phone over the belt. "Henshin."

"That's not how you do it." Jack said. "It's a phone, so call up your rider form. And as for the code, it's in the name of the rider."

Bumblebee thought this over before punching in the code 5-5-5. He pressed enter. "Standing by." The yellow Autobot put the phone in the buckle. "Complete." Bumblebee was turned into Kamen Rider Faiz.

"Jack, it seems you and Arcee have more knowledge with these 'belts', perhaps you could."

"Help out? Sure." Jack turned stood up and walked towards Optimus. "Okay, we started out of order, so let's try to do this as organized as possible." Jack saw that Optimus had the Alter Ring on him. "That one's easy, just press the two buttons on the side."

Optimus did as Jack said. In a flash of blinding light, he was turned into Kamen Rider Agito.

He then went over to Bulkhead. "V-Buckle. Just insert the advent deck."

"Okay." Bulkhead placed the black item into his temporary transformation device. He was turned into Kamen Rider Ryuki.

Jack then walked over to Smokescreen. "Okay, the Blay Buckle. Just put the rouse card in and pull the lever."

"Okay." Smokescreen said.

After the blue and white autobot put the card in the slot on the belt, he pulled the lever. "Turn up." A blue wall with a golden beetle splayed over it was visible. Smokescreen was turned into Kamen Rider Blade.

"Now for Hibiki, just use that tuning fork thing, hit it against something, then hold it to your forehead."

Ultra Magnus did that and was transformed into Kamen Rider Hibiki.

"Okay mom, Kabuto was the rider show that you like the most, and it's only now I realise why. You got this?"

"Yeah. Henshin." She put the Zector into the Rider Belt, assuming Kabuto's masked form. "Cast off." June said before she flipped the lever that was the beetle's horns.

"Cast off. Change Beetle." June was now Kabuto Rider form.

"Okay Raf, for Kiva, just let the bat bite you then put it on the belt.

Raf did as Jack said. He was transformed into Kamen Rider Kiva.

Kevin pressed the buttons on the two gaia memories that were in his hands.

"Cyclone." The green one announced. "Joker!" The black one announced.

"Let's see. Gold to gold. Silver to silver."

"Cyclone. Joker!" The transformation theme for Kamen Rider W cyclone/joker played.

Miko flipped the red switches on the Fourze driver. The tone's pitch increased with each swich she flipped. Then, there was a countdown. "Three... Two... One..." Miko then flipped the lever on the belt. The transformation tune for Fourze played. Miko was turned into Fourze base states.

"I don't know why, but, space..." She crouched down. "Is here!" She splayed her arms out.

"Okay, how do I work this?" Gwen asked as she looked at the red and silver ring that was on her left middle finger.

"You use the levers to change the turn the hand, then scan the ring."

Gwen did that. The belt annouced: "Shabadoobi Touch Henshin! Shabadoobi Touch Henshin!" Gwen passed the ring over the hand on the belt. "Flame, please. Hi-Hi, Hi-Hi-Hi!" Gwen was transformed into Kamen Rider Wizard Flame style.

Tsukasa and Yusuke had turned into Kamen Riders Decade and Kuuga respectively.

"Autobots, let's roll!"

"But how? We don't have any wheels."

"Look behind you." Arcee said. She revved the engine of the Ridevendor.

The rider machines of the fourteen heisei riders were behind the recently transformed humans and Autobots. There was a fifteenth motorcycle though. It was one that looked exactly like Arcee's alt mode. Kuuga got on the Trychaser 2000, Agito-Prime got on Machine Tornador, Ryuki-head got on the Ride Shooter, Faiz-bee got on the SB-555V Auto Vajin or Auto Vajin for short, Blade-screen got on the Blade Spader, Hibiki-Magnus sat in the seat of the Gaika, June-Kabuto mounted the Kabuto Extender, Den-Ojack got on machine Den-bird, Kiva-Raf sat on Machine Kivaa, Decade mounted Machine Decader, W-Kevin got on the HardBoilder, Fourze-ko got on machine Massingler, and Wizard-Gwen got on Machinwinger.

"Hold on, fourteen riders. Fifteen motorcycles. Who's our plus one?" W asked.

"I think it's Jack." OOO responded. "Come on partner hop on."

Jack nodded. He activated the Omnitrix and turned into Big Chill. "Let's go." He said.

"Right. Ratchet, open the ground bridge." Decade said. The vortex opened. The Autoriders drove through the vortex, with Decade leading the charge.

[From this point on, there's gonna be a ton of monsters from all eras of the Kamen Rider series(as long as it was before Gaim)]

 

Outside the MT Rushmore Plumber base...

The ground bridge vortex opened. The rider machines of the Kamen Riders drove out of them as well as Big Chill on the copy of Arcee's alt mode.

Apparently team nadir was waiting for them, seeing as they stood ready to fight. But they once again had the advantage of numbers, seeing as a whole army of Kaijin and combatmen were behind them.

Despite looking different, Vince recognized them. "Oh look, you have new toys." He said. "So do we." He placed the lost driver on his waist. "Henshin." He held up the Eternal memory. He had an evil grin on his face.

"Eternal!" Vince put it into the Lost Driver and transformed into Kamen Rider Eternal.

"Get them!" Shadow Moon ordered. The Kaijin and footsoldiers charged.

"Let's go!" The riders and Big Chill got ready to fight.

When the riders and their enemies met, the battle began.

OOO switched the tora medal for the gorrilla medal. She scanned them in. "Taka gorrilla batta!" She punched up several combatmen, taking great joy, not that she was inflicting pain, but because she was a Kamen Rider, which was something she became a fan of when she saw it on accident when she was on monitor duty years ago. One of the Shocker Kaijin tried to slice her, but it was hit out of the way by her partner, who flew by and froze it solid. The two of them stood back to back after OOO side kicked one of the worms that Kabuto fought.

Big Chill let the staff used by a Raydragoon pass through him, causing the mirror monster to strike down several of its comrades. He then turned tangible and kicked it down.

Kabuto punched a combatman in the stomach then smacked it across the face. She stabbed a Bakeneko with her Kunai Gun and slashed Psycorogue with it. He turned her Kunai Gun into its hatchet mode and flung it at Coleoptera Worm Argentum.

W caught the blow sent at him by Ganikomoru. He inserted to metal memory into his belt. "Cyclone, metal." He swung the metal rod, blowing the Kaijin at a squad of Combatmen.

Den-O sliced several of the Combatmen with the dengasher. After the strike with his sword, he tried to say his catchphrase triumphantly. "Ore, san-" A combatman got in front of him. "You're in the way asshole!" He kicked the Combatman to the side. "Ore, sango!" He struck his signature pose. "I sure am cool." He gloated. "Go! Go! Go!" He shouted as he charged, slicing up monsters left and right. "Eat this!" He stabbed a mole imagin.

Fourze had the rocket module deployed. She deactivated it and landed on one of the Mole Imagin, tackling it. She got up and replaced the rocket and launcher switches with the claw switch and the beat switch respectively. She activated the claw switch.

"Claw on."

And started slicing up combatmen and kaijin.

"Drill on."

She stuck her left foot, which had a drill on it, into Space Spiderman. She drilled into him. She was going to be stabbed in the back by a Raydragoon, but a fire blast from Ryuki killed that monster.

Ryuki used the Drag Saber to slash several coleoptera worms. "Oh yeah." He said as he struck a pose.

An Argentum was sliced up by decade, who used the ride booker in sword form. He turned around and kicked down the Arch Orphnoch.

Kiva, who was in Garulu form, was up on a ridge, he sliced up several of the combatmen that surrounded him. He stabbed the moose fangire and then kicked down Ika-Jaguar.

Faiz kicked down one of the rat fangires. He saw in his peripheral vision a combatman getting up on a rock. Before he could jump on him, Faiz jumped and sidekicked the footsoldier down.

Blade swung his sword at the shins of a dark roach. He then stabbed it in the back when it was down. "Oh yeah!"

Big Chill flew at a group of Kaijin and Combatmen, kicking them down as he flew by. He landed, exhaled on a Darkroach that tried to attack him. When Formica Regia tried to stab him with her trident like weapon, Big Chill turned, hitting her face with his wings. He then grabbed her shoulders and tossed her at Agito, who destroyed her with a swing from his flame form's sword.

Speaking of Agito, after he destroyed the Queen Ant Lord, he switched back to ground form and punched and chopped several combatmen before a pair of cat like Bakeneko try to jump him. He front kicked on before tossing the other one over his shoulder. When Doras tried to attack him, he jumped off of the hill he was fighting on, taking out several kaijin as he ran down. He punched down a Darkroach. Another one tried to stab him in the back, but Agito spun and kicked it.

Another Bakeneko and a mole imagin tried to strike agito, but Hibiki used his Ongekibo Rekka to beat them down. As he beat several darkroaches, his drumstick like weapons built up more energy. He flung the fireballs at a ground of waste yummies.

Kabuto kicked the shield out of the hand of Leiruus Acutia, who was going to slice her son's head off without him knowing. She hit the pads on the sides of her belt. "Clock up." She became nearly as fast as XLR8 and quickly beat the scorpion themed Lord.

Big Chill grabbed the necks of a mole imagin and Cassis Worm Gladius. He slammed them together.

Wizard performed a back flip to avoid the shots fired by several mystical themed monsters. She scanned a ring in. "Big, please." She stuck her hand through a portal, making her forearm become huge. She crushed those monsters before elbowing a combatman that tried to sneak up on her. She kicked a rat fangire down. Before striking a pose.

Kuuga back kicked a pair of combatmen. Following that, he punched the longhorn Orphnoch in the face.

W, who was now in his Heat/Metal form struck combatman after combatman with the metal shaft. The bows now dealt flame damage. He inserted the metal memory into a slot on his bo staff like weapon. "Metal. Maximum drive!" He swung the metal staff over his head and flung two fireballs at a group of kaijin and footsoldiers.

Kuuga, Agito, Wizard, and Kabuto were all dealing with a rather tough Kaijin, Garagaranda. Wizard used to wizard swordgun in sword mode to try to cut it down to size, but that didn't work. Garagaranda swung its whip like left arm around, hurting the hurting the four riders. Before it could make a second pass, Wizard sliced it's arm off. She and Kabuto struck the rattlesnake kaijin with their bladed weapons, causing it to stumble.

"Let's go Optimus!" Kuuga shoute.

"Okay." Agito nodded. The fins on Agito's helmet extended. He and Kuuga jumped up, did a front flip and both announced: "Rider double kick!" The delivered the finisher to Garagaranda.

The rattlesnake kaijin was down, but not out. "June, Gwendolyne, finish it."

"Okay." The two currently female riders nodded.

Wizard scanned a ring into her belt. "Chōīne, Kick strike! Saikō!"

Kabuto pressed the three buttons on the feet of the zector. "One. Two. Three." She opened and closed the zector. "Rider kick."

Kabuto and Wizard leaped into the air and delivered their own rider kicks. Garagaranda was overloading. He exploded with the four riders that defeated it facing it as it fell to the ground and exploded.

"Damn you Kamen Riders!" Ikadevil cursed as Big Chill, Decade, OOO, Faiz, Den-O, Blade, and Kiva. When they charged at him, he fired flaming squids at them. Huh? "Ika bombs!" He shouted. The riders were knocked back.

Decade fired at Ikadevil before Blade, Den-O, and OOO ran at him, slashing him with their swords. Big Chill flew over head and grabbed him with his feet and tossed the squid and beer themed monster away. When he landed, Faiz, Kiva, Den-O, Blade, and OOO got in front of him and Decade. The charged at Ikadevil, but a large group of Kaijin and Combatmen got between the superior Kaijin and the riders.

Decade drew two cards from the rider booker, one of them was for Den-O's final form ride, the other was one that had a picture of Big Chill and yet to be used form of Ultimate Big Chill. He placed them in the Decadriver. "Final form ride: D-D-Den-O! B-B-Big Chill!"

Wheeljack was thrown out of Den-O as the rider was turned into Momotaros. Wheeljack was still human sized however. Big Chill was turned into Ultimate Big Chill.

"Youch!" Big Chill yelped as he turned into Ultimate Big Chill. "Geeze that actually does hurt a lot."

"What just happened?" Wheeljack asked as he stood up. "And who's this guy?" He pointed at the red oni like imagin.

"That's momotaros, the greatest character from Den-O." U. Big Chill said.

"What do you want? An autograph?" Momotaros asked.

"Yes please."

"Later. Wait, what're we doing?" The red imagin saw the cards that decade drew. "Oh this again."

Decade placed the cards in the decadriver. "Final form ride: F-F-F-Faiz! B-B-B-blade! K-K-K-Kiva! O-O-O-OOO!" Faiz was turned into the Faiz Blaster, Blade was turned into the Blade Blade, Kiva was turned into the Kiva Arrow, and OOO was turned into the OOO Medajalibur.

"I remember this." Momotaros said as he caught the Kiva Arrow.

"What's going on?" Kiva asked.

"Just follow along boy." Momotaros ordered.

Decade caught the Faiz Blaster, Wheeljack had the Blade Blade, and U. Big Chill had the OOO Medajalibur.

"Alright now, let's do this." Momotaros took aim. "Hissatsu! Our hissatsu attack!" He pulled back on the bow.

Wheeljack got ready to strike with the Blade Blade. Decade took aim with the Faiz Blaster.

U. Big Chill flew up, holding OOO Medajalibur in his hands. "Ready 'cee?" The evolved Necrofriggian asked.

"Yeah." She mentally scanned the medals that were in her.

"Triple, scanning charge!"

"Final attack version!" Momotaros let go of the bow string as the arrow that it held was fired at the group. U. Big Chill swung the giant Medajalibur, unleashing a massive wave of energy. Decade and Wheeljack unleashed their finishers, but without any fanfare.

"See you again." Ikadevil said as he waved by. He then fell over and before he hit the ground and exploded, he shouted: "Ika!"

The riders let their weapons go, allowing them to revert to their normal forms.

"That was fun." Wheeljack said as he stretched out.

W, Ryuki, Hibiki, and Fourze were dealing with the last stragglers of the Kaijin army.

"Ready?" Hibiki got ready to unleash his finisher.

Ryuki placed a new card into the dragvisor. "Strike vent." His dragon head shaped flame shooter was equipped.

"Fire." The Fourze driver announced after its user put astroswitch number 20 in. "Fire on." Fourze was transformed into Fire States.

"Heat! Trigger!" W was transformed into Heat Trigger.

"Trigger! Maximum Drive!" The Trigger Magnum announced after the trigger memory was placed in the blue hand gun.

"Limit break." The hehack gun announced after the fire switch was put in it.

"Final vent!"

The four riders unleashed quadruple flame burst that destroyed the remaining monsters and foot soldiers.

The riders charged at the entrance to the plumber base. Only Hakaider and the Forever Ninja stood there, the rest of the Team Nadir having fled after seeing the display of power that Team Prime displayed.

"Arcee, ready to pay back Hakaider for what he did to you?" Big Chill asked.

OOO nodded. She readied the super tatoba medals. "Miko, rocket states, let's go!"

"Rocket, Super!" The Fourze Driver announced after she placed astroswitch S-1 in it. The pressed it down. "Rocket on!"

"Super! Super! Super! Super taka! Super tora! Super batta! Super tatoba! Ta-to-ba! Super!" OOO was in her Super Tatoba Combo, standing next to Fourze, who was in Rocket states.

Hakaider and the Forever Ninja were joined by the Terror Dopant, the ClayDoll Dopant, the R Nasca Dopant, the Smilodon Dopant, Uva, Kazari, Gamel, and Mezool.

Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kabuto, and Wizard stood besides OOO and Fourze.

"Miko, we'll handle these creeps." Ryuki said. "You and Arcee take the mechanical menaces."

"Let's go!"

"Yeah!"

The greeed and Dopants charged the eight riders while Hakaider and The Forever Ninja were thrown on the top of the mountain.

 

With the eight riders...

Kuuga was fighting the R Nasca dopant, Ryuki fought the ClayDoll Dopant, Blade dueled with Uva, Kabuto side kicked Kazari then Mezool, Wizard fought Kazari, Hibiki fought the Smilodon dopant, Ryuki dealt with the Terror Dopant, and Agito battled Gamel.

The riders split up.

Kazari did a jump spin, slicing at Wizard. She managed to block part of that move with her sword. She scanned in a form change ring. "Water, please: Sui-Sui, Sui-Sui!" She was now Wizard Water style.

As she ran to the left, Kazari tried to stab her with his dreadlocks, which he used as tendrils. He feet formed into a 'stream' of water as she rose up. "Aqua mana kick!" She struck Kazari a blow to the chest. He expoded into a shower of cell medals.

Kuuga jumped and sidekicked the R Nasca Dopant. The dopant jumped up. "You've sealed your fate!" He jumped up and delivered a: "Rider Kick!" The Dopant was destroyed.

Agito dodged a punch that Gamel threw at him. He blocked another attempted smash by the silver yummy and punched his chest several times. He kicked Gamel away. "Rider punch!" He shouted as he charged and delivered a single punch to Gamel, sending him flying into the mountain. The greeed exploded.

Ryuki slammed the Drag Claw against the ClayDoll Dopant several times. He then kicked her away. The earthy dopant spun. She took aim at the advent rider and fired at him.

Ryuki placed a new card in the drag visor. "Guard vent." Shields appeared on Ryuki's arms. He blocked her attack before jumping up and inserting the Final Vent card. Ryuki delivered his rider kick, destroying her.

Faiz punched Mezool. He avoided a strike that telegraphed. She ducked to avoid a roundhouse kick that he performed. She tried striking the tech themed rider, but that was blocked. He shot her several times with the Faiz Phone. He placed it back in his belt before pressing the enter button. "Exceed charge." He jumped, a red rotating cone formed on mezool where her core medals were. He kicked her, drilling through the blue greeed, defeating her.

"Let's finish this." Blade said after swiping at Uva twice in an X pattern. Uva was knocked over. He swiped two cards in on his sword.

"Kick. Thunder." He thrust his sword into the ground, and jumped, delivering his own Rider Kick. Uva was destroyed.

Hibiki was fighting the Smilodon dopant in the forest. He mangaged to avoid all of the attacks that the dopant threw at him. The dopant tried throwing chucks of the ground at the Oni rider, but those were blocked by Hibiki's Ongekibou Rekka. He placed the buckle of his belt on the Dopant's chest and struck the giant drum that formed a couple dozen times, causing the monster to be destroyed.

"Let's finish this!" Kabuto said. She pressed the buttons on the zector.

"One. Two. Three." Kabuto closed then opened the zector. "Rider Kick."

"Kabuto lightspeed kick!" She jumped up and delivered a charge sidekick to the Terror Dopant, critically damaging it. The dopant then exploded.

 

On top of the mountain...

The Forever Ninja was no match for Super Tatoba. It was swiftly detroyed. But Hakaider was still the toughest one there is. He even increased his strength by activating yet another one of the modifications the 'cons gave him. A t-cog that allowed him to transform into Super Galaxy King. But it was no mere appearance change, he had all of the original's powers.

"Let's finish this Miko." OOO said as she got ready to fight.

Fourze flew at SGK, who threw his blade weapon at her, which she dodged. She was able to dodge it by flying around wildly. She almost crashed on the ground in the final pass, but she pushed the twin rocket modules to the limit. Getting back up to OOO, who was using the Super Tora claws to block strikes from SGK's weapon. She ran at SKG, slamming the rockets against him. OOO jumped and kicked SGK several times before landing.

SGK tried hitting Fourze yet again, but the astronaut rider blocked the strikes and jumed to avoid a low kick.

SGK did manage however to grab the heads of the two riders and throw them away from him. They would've yet again fallen off the mountain, but OOO used her claws to come to a stop while Fourze used to rockets for the same end.

"Have a glimpse of the power that Shocker shall unleash upon this world!" He fired a beam of cosmic energy, which Fourze blocked with the Rocket Modules.

OOO saw that Fourze was getting her ass handed to her. She took her taka medal and replaced it with the switch that formed from it, the OOO switch.

The swich was activated and instead of forming the OOO module, it allowed Fourze to start aborbing the power that was being blasted at her.

"I feel super charged!" Fourze shouted as she started to have a blue aura around her. "Space... It's space time!" She proclaimed at the top of her lungs. "Thanks 'cee."

"Don't mention it. Now's our turn. Let's finish this guy so that there's one less ubermonster trying to take over the universe." OOO said.

Fourze nodded. She activated the drill switch while OOO scanned the core medals. The space themed rider flipped the lever on the side of her belt.

"Scanning charge!"

"Rocket! Drill! Limit break!"

The flew up and came down in unison, delivering their final attack. It was the "Rider Double Rocket Drill Kick!" Fourze proclaimed as she and OOO struck SGK, overloading him.

The landed on the ground, having switched back to Base States and Tatoba Combo respectively.

"We got him." Fourze said as she and OOO fist bumped.

Soon, inside the base...

A crab like monster and dozens of Combatmen as well as the Forever King were guarding the entrance to the room with the Sub Energy.

The fifteen heroes ran up from around the corner, much to the shock of the Forever King.

"Impossible!" He couldn't believe what had happened.

"You better beli-" Big Chill was interrupted as the worst possible thing happened right now. The Omnitrix timed out, reverting him back to being Jack.

"Oh scrap."

"Jack, get to someplace safe." His mother, who was still Kabuto, ordered.

"Yes ma'am." He was going to go hide, but he had a better idea. He found a door and went in it. It must've been his lucky day, seeing as it was an armory.

In the hall, the riders tried charging at the bad guys, but found that they couldn't get far. They were blasted by blue beams fired by a monster called Kani Laser.

"What the?" Kiva groaned as he got back up.

"Face us!" Kani Laser ordered.

"Sure thing crab pie." Kabuto said. She activated her clock up ability and tried to get in closer to the monster, but even at her sub light speeds, she Kani Laser was still able to target her. She was shot and knocked out.

"Den-O sword and Den-O strike tried to attack him from both sides, but found that that was pointless.

"Bulkhead, Smokescreen, catch." Decade threw the two riders a gosei card.

The riders placed the cards into what ever it was that read cards for them.

"Attack Ride: Reflectcloud." The decadriver said that in a very regal voice.

"Reflect clear." The Blay Rouzer announced.

"Reflect quartz vent."

A green shield formed around Decade, a wall of water was in front of Blade, and a giant crystal was in front of Ryuki.

"Damn you!" Kani Laser curse before he fired beams at the riders, but they were reflected back at him. "Crab you!" He said when he was downed.

The card using rider prepared for their final attacks.

They delivered a tripple rider kick that destroyed Kani laser.

"Die!" The Forever King yelled as he fired a red laser beam at Kabuto. The beetle besed rider switched to her masked form and even though the beam was firing at her, she managed to get up close to her former instructor. She broke the horns off his helmet, but not before the armor cracked. She went back to her rider form, but her visor had a huge hole, allowing her left eye to be visible from underneath.

The Forever King still had the combatmen at his side. He got an idea tio make them more useful. He opened a panel on his armor. The combatmen turned into a purple mist and were aborbed, making the Forever King even more powerful. He now looked like the Rock Great Leader, but was a hell of a lot smaller, being human sized instead of being bigger than a mountain.

"Come at me!" Rock King fired a massive beam of enegy that the riders dodge to avoid. It tore through the mountain, leaving a visible hole.

"Scrap." OOO cursed. "We need more power."

"Here." Den-O sword tossed OOO a core medal, as did Decade they were the Imagin and Shocker medals.

"Okay. Let's go!" OOO relaced the Tora and Batta medals with the Imagin and Shocker medals. She scanned the combo in,

"Taka! Imagin! Shocker! Tamashi! Tamashi tamashi! Rider~damashi!"

OOO took in a deep breath, despite the fact that she didn't need to. Rock King fired at OOO, who scanned the medals again. She gathered energy from within herself and fired a beam at the one that Rock King fired. They go into a duel to see who could over power the other.

Tamashi combo was being pushed to the limits, but fortunatly, the Rock King wasn't holding back as well. Neither one could get the upper hand. That is until...

OOO felt someone touch her shoulders. She looked to see Kiva, but with Kamen Rider Kiva-la's color scheme.

"Finish it Arcee." The second Kiva said is voice whas one that Arcee recognized.

"Jack?"

The new rider nodded. He glowed silver, that glow then heading into Arcee, super charging her.

"Seiya!" OOO screamed as she over powered the Rock King. causing his Kaijin form to disolve, as well as most of his armor.

"What? No!" Driscoll refused to belive what happened. "I can't be defeated! I can't!"

"You better believe it." Kiva 2 kicked Driscoll right in the face, knocking him out cold. In a flash of light, Jack was in the place of Kiva 2. Kivara was perched on his shoulder. "Thanks Kivara."

"No problem, Jacki-kun." The little bat gave Jack a kiss on the cheek.[In Decade, Kivara was very polite to her friends.]

"Um, what just happened?" Agito asked.

"Well, I somehow found my way to the Hikari studio. I told Natsume and her granddad that you two were in trouble. Kivara offered to help me, and I accepted it. She helped me transform into Kamen Rider Kiva-el."

"And in return, I can do this." Kivara said. She breathed a reathed a tiny stream of flames.

"Yeah, she took a bit from Heatblast and got a bit of his powers."

"And now to free you friend." Kivara said.

"He is no longer of use to me." Shadow Moon's voice was heard. He appeared in front of the riders with Cooper in his hand. He tossed the boy to Jack. "Shocker now has access to the Sub Energy, but, I should destroy you before you try to stop me." He swung his sword at Jack and Kivara.

"Clock up." June sped and grabbed her son and the tiny bat that was near him. She got them out of the base.

The nearly drained riders ran as Shadow Moon attacked them by firing lightning, swinging his sword or any other attack he had in his arsenal.

 

Very soon...

Jack saw that his mother's visor was broken, A stray bolt from Shadowmoon shattered Kabuto's helmet, revealing June's head.

Shadow Moon was overpowering the riders. He caused Decade to revert back to his human form, and for the others to have their armor cracked, their eyes, mouth, and bits of their normal form visible.

Half of Agito's helmet was gone, revealing Optimus' face underneath. Den-O strike was missing an arm and a lens. Ryuki's knees and neck were exposed. The damage varried from rider to rider.

"And just what did you imitation Kamen Riders think you're capable of doing?" Shadow Moon asked. "That power does not belong to you. You are just a collection of individuals with borrowed powers."

"Someone once said," Optimus-Agito began. "That the strength of individuals is what powers the group as a whole."

"We may not be Kamen Riders, but their strength supercharges us." Arcee-OOO continued.

"And with their power, we're gonna stop you from ruling our world." Miko-Fourze said.

"We'll never give up." June-Kabuto added.

"Never surrender." Wheeljack-Den-O said.

"We'll keep fighting until the end." Raf-Kiva continued.

"Until we win..." Kevin-W added.

"Or die trying!" Gwen-Wizard finished.

"What?! Just who are you people?!" Shadow Moon demanded an answer.

Normally, it would be Tsukasa who did this part, but he decided to do it. "They're a lot of things." Jack began. "Autobots, humans, friends, family, partners." He pointed to Tsukasa. "But this I know for a fact, he is a passing through Kamen Rider, and you better remember that!" Jack then turned to Tsukasa. "How'd I do?"

"Good, but it could've been better." Tsukasa stood beside Jack. "Everyone, ready?"

"Yeah!" The temporary riders all said.

"Okay. Let's go!" Tsukasa placed his rider card into the Decadriver's slot.

"Kamen ride: Decade." Tsukasa was transformed into Decade.

A pulse of energy came from the Omnitrix, repairing the Rider's armor and getting them ready to continue the fight.

Various monsters appeared in front of Shadow Moon. There was between sixty and seventy of them.

Jack activated the Omnitrix and turned into Diamondhead. "Now, it's showtime!"

"Hey! That's my line!" Wizard-Gwen shouted. "I think."

The heroes charged at the

Den-O sword, Den-O strike, Ryuki, and Fourze were fighting a colection of several monsters from both the Heisei and Showa eras. They were Yattaradamas, the Spider Undead, Ikafire, a mole imagin, Vampire Bat Beastman, the Octopus Orphnoch, the Unicorn Zodiarts, Stag Kikkaijiin, the Ageha Yummy, and a few others.

Den-O sword and Ryuki blocked the blows from Yattaradamas and Ikafire, tossing them back. The two red sword wielding riders then stabbed a couple of mole imagin that tried to attack them from behind.

As Fourze kicked over the Stag Kikkaijin, Den-O Strike ran by with the Vampire Bat Beastman being stabbed by the Dengasher sword. The Spider Undead caught Fourze by surprise and grabbed onto her. The Undead was going to bite her, but it was stabbed by Den-O rod form.

"Look out!" Den-O rod form caught Fourze and kept her from falling to the ground. "You alright there miss?" He asked with a voice that was neither Wheeljack's or Momotaros' but rather Urataros'.

"Huh?" Fourze was confused.

"You're not hurt, are you?" He asked the Rider that he held in his arm.

"Let's settle this wrecker style!" Ryuki punched the Octopus Orphnoch before stabbing Ikafire.

"Hey! Check this out Miko-chan!" Den-O gun form shouted from atop the shoulders of Den-O axe, who slashed at a mole imagin and the Aheha Yummy.

"Mind if I defeat you?" Den-O gun fired at the two monsters that Axe struck as well as the Octopus Orphoch and another mole imagin. "I'm not waiting for your answer!"

"So do you mind," Den-O rod began after hitting down two combatmen. "if I string you along a bit?"

"Hey turtle boy! Save the pick up act for later!" Shouted a frustrated Den-O sword form.

The Unicorn Zodiarts cnarged at Rod, Sword, and Fourze. It separated the three riders, then turned, knocking down Sword, causing him to roll down a hill and hit the legs of Den-O axe, causing him to fall over into a puddle of muddy water.

"A great man still looks good. Even in mud." Axe said after cracking his neck.

"Dummy! Dummy!" Gun slapped Axe in the back of the head. A Dragoon was going to bring its spear down, but they managed to roll to avoid it.

Hibiki was fighting a group of phantoms and humans sized Makamou. He was getting overwhelmed and when the Bahamut phantom flew by and knocked him off the ridge he was fighting on and got on top of him he was about to strike down, but luckily, Wizard(who was in her all dragon form) flew by and knocked the phantom off him. She scanned in a wizard ring.

"Bind, please." Flaming chains came from the dragon head on her chest. They wrapped around the phantoms and makamou and restrained them. Hibiki charged up a fire blast and flung it at the restrained monsters, defeating them.

Wizard landed next to Hibiki and reverted to her flame style as the monsters exploded.

Agito and W were fighting Cyborg soldier level three and Kamen Rider Ketaros. The mutant monster was proving to be more than a match for Agito, who was in trinity form. He grabbed agito's sword out of his hand and threw it away.

W was trying his best to block the shots fired at him by Ketaros. That was working partially until the evil zect rider shot him in the foot.

"Ahg! Damnit!" W winced in pain. W fell to the ground and was rubbing his foot. Ketaros came up and was about to finish him off, but Kabuto came in and kicked Ketaros away.

"Thanks." W said to Kabuto as she helped him up.

"Don't mention it." Optimus, Kevin, let's deal with these guys.

"Die!" Ketaros shouted as he and CSL3 fired at the three riders.

Kabuto switched to her masked form and tanked everything that was thrown at her. She switched back to her rider form and ran at the two rider like monsters in clock up mode. She tossed them up into the air.

"Now." Agito said.

"Okay." W nodded. He put the Joker memory in the maximum drive slot.

"Joker, Maximum Drive!"

The fins on Agito's helmet unfolded. He and W jumped up and delivered a rider double kick to destroy them.

"Let's go Jack!" OOO, who was in her Tajador combo said to Diamondhead.

"You got it 'cee." He and OOO fired at a pair of pterodactyl yummies.

OOO switch back to Tatoba as she ran at four different monsters; the Lion-Kurage yummy, the T2 Luna dopant, Starfish-Hitler[yes it's real], and Raigyon.

She delivered one swipe with the medajalibur to each of the monsters, announcing her battle cry of "Seiya!" When she delivered the final blow to the Lion-Kurage yummy. The monsters were beaten.

"Burst mode!" The Faiz phone announced. The rider in question fired three powerful blasts at three fangire that were going to overwhelm Kiva, but there were still more.

Faiz put the Faiz phone back in his belt. He placed the Axel Mission memory in the Faiz phone, transforming into Faiz Axel form. He pressed the starter switch on the Faiz Axel and rushed at the fangires and Orphnochs that were attacking Kiva. In the span of ten seconds, Faiz beat all of the monsters that surrounded his friends. But they were not out.

Kiva inserted the Wake Up flussle into Kivat. He jumped and delivered his rider kick, destroying them.

Faiz reverted to his default mode as Kiva stood next to him as the monsters exploded.

Fourze had gotten separated from the Den-O team and Ryuki. She was struck by Apollo Geist's rapier. She tried punching him, but the Showa Kaijin got out of the way. She was knocked over. Apollo Geist tried to slice her by using his buzzsaw like shield, but she managed to get up. He stabbed her, but the sword didn't pierce her rider suit.

He tried stabbing her face, but Fourze dodged that attack. She kicked his shield to the left and then she turned and kicked him in the chest.

"Time to see if I'm really as polarizing as people say I am." Fourze said as she inserted the two halves of the Magphone into the Fourze driver.

"N magnet S magnet. NS magnet on." Fourze was transformed into magnet states

"Get a load of this!" She shouted after initiating a limit break. The two cannons on her shoulders popped out and formed a horseshoe magnet that floated in front of her.

"Geist Cutter!" Apollo Geist flung his shield at Fourze.

Using the magnet switches as joysticks, Fourze used the magnet in front of her to fire a beam of magnetic energy that hit the buzzsaw like shield. "Rider railgun bomber!" The beam over powered the shield and sent it flying into Apollo Geist.

The heroes regrouped. They saw Shadow Moon standing out in the open. They charged at him. Shadow Moon swung his arm, causing even more Kaijin to appear.

The monsters and the riders got into another brawl.

Wizard punched a copy of the Arch Orphnoch

Ryuki side kicked the warthog fangire. Hibiki delivered several punches to the Paradoxa undead.

OOO dodged a swipe from an Mole Imagin, which was then knocked out by Diamondhead. OOO blocked a strike from the Cammarus worm before kicking it away. Fourze could be seen blocking a strike from the Perseus Zodiarts' sword, before kicking its head.

Decade was fighting the IceAge Dopant. While wizard continued to fight the Arch Orphnoch. Kuuga kicked a mole imagin out of the way before he punched Formica Eques. A bakoneko jumped on Kuuga's back, but he threw the cat like monster off.

Agito kicked over Kasha before turning his attention to a rat fangire that ran at him. With a single bunch he beat that monster and the Hound Zodiarts that tried to attack him.

When Ryuki beat the Warthog Fangire, he did a wide side kick and kicked over the Armadillo Orphnoch before turning his attention to the Cygnus Zodiarts.

Faiz stabbed a mole imagin, then swung his sword at the legs of Deadlemur. Formica Regia and the Gryllus worm fought against Den-O.

Blade stabbed the Culex Worm before elbowing the Anomalocaris Dopant.

Hibiki's Ongekibo Reka charged up as he slammed them on the chests of a mole imagin and Zu-Goom-Gu.

Diamondhead punched the Peacock undead, sending it into the Clown Imagin. He slammed his fist on the ground, causing crystals to fling them away.

Kabuto fought against a Deadlemur, a bakeneko, the Gene Dopant, and a Culex worm. She tossed the Deadlemur away before kneeing the Gene Dopant. She did a spinning side kick which broke the neck of the bakeneko.

Den-O strke was clashing blades with an upgrade mole imagin. He kicked it away before he held the dengasher underhand and stabbed Space Spiderman.

Kiva tackeled the Dummy Dopant. He was then attacked by the spider fangire. He tossed the spider based monster off of him before punching a mole imagin dozens of times in the chest.

"Now, count up your sins!" W shouted as he kicked over Antront then punching the R Nasca Dopant.

OOO slashed a mole imagin with the Medajalibur before stabbing the male Pterodactyl yummy.

Fourze kicked over the Pyxis zodiarts before dodging a strike from a salis worm. She did this while shouting: "Let's settle this one on one!" She then kicked the Salis worm down before using her other foot to kick back Gynabalas.

Decade swung his sword in wide curves at the Iceage Dopant, Pantheras Luteus, and Alternative Zero.

The monsters were down, and now it was time for the finishers.

"Wake up!" Kivat announced after Kiva placed the respective flusel in his mouth. The panels on Kiva's right shin opened up.

"Gattling on." The gattling module appeared on Fourze's left leg. As she fired at a group of the monsters, Kiva came down with his Rider Kick.

Faiz jumped through the resulting fireball and sliced apart several nearby monsters.

OOO scanned the cell medals in the Medajalibur, Blade Swiped a card into the Blade Rouzer.

"Tripple, Scanning Charge!"

"Lightning Slash!"

They ran at a group of monsters in opposite directions, swinging their swords to damage them. Agito, who was tossed up by Diamondhead came down and destroyed them with his rider kick.

"Full Charge." The Den-O belt announced after the Rider Pass was scanned.

"Our Finishing Move, part 2!" Den-O Sword and Strike shouted.

"Strike vent."

"Joker! Maximum drive!"

As W came down for his rider kick, the Den-Os and Ryuki destroyed the monsters that were in front of them.

"Rider Kick!" The Kabuto Zector announced before the beetle themed rider jumped and delivered her finisher along with Kuuga and Hibiki, that latter of which switching to his Kurenai form.

The remaining monsters were destroyed by Wizard and Decade, who finished off the Arch Orphnoch and Altenative Zero last.

"And now time to get rid of the last one." The Omnitrix started to time out. Jack was reverted back into a human. "Scrap!" Jack, not needing to be told what to do, got out of the way to let the rest of them fight.

"I still have more. Attack!" Shadow Moon ordered. He pointed his sword at the Riders and the Petrosapien. He lowered his sword and pointed to several of the monsters.

Dozens of Hydragoons flew at the riders. The giant T-rex dopant, the mutated form of Mezool, and an unidentifiable giant type makamou.

"We can handle big enemies too!" Faiz buzzed. "I hope."

"Let's go! Go! Go!" Den-O sword shouted. He jumped up and boarded the Den-Liner.

The Denliner began its attack on the giant monsters as Kiva summoned Castle Doran and Ryuki summoned the Dragreder.

"This isn't too different from rouge Dinobots." Hibiki said.

"At their speed, they won't be able to keep up with me." Kabuto said. She formulated a plan to even the odds in their favor.

"Less talk, more fight." W, who was in Luna/Trigger form said. He stretched his right arm and struck one of the dragoons out of the sky.

Faiz, Blade, W, Kuuga, Agito, and Hibiki were fighting the giant T-Rex dopant.

Kabuto used the Kabuto extended in its EX mode to take out a bunch of the flying Dragoons. She then hit the rear wheel of the super fast super bike against the giant dopant's head.

"Let's go Smokey." Fourze activated the super rocket module and assumed Rocket States. Blade turned into his jack form. They flew at the Dragoons to join the fight in the air.

"Final form ride: K-K-K-Kuuga. A-A-A-Agito."

"Optimus, this might be unpleasant." Decade said before he turned Kuuga into the Gouram and Agito into the Agito Tornador Hoverboard mode.

"Let's roll." Agito said before he and Kuuga flew at the Dragoons. Decade hopped onto the Tornador before it flew off.

Wizard, who was in Flame Dragon form activated the drago time.

"Setup, start. Water Dragon, Hurricane Dragon, Land Dragon. All Dragon!"

"Okay Gwen, let's show them some real firepower." OOO said as she readied the red core medals.

"Taka! Kujaku! Condor! Ta~ja~dor!" OOO was transformed into Tajador. She and Wizard flew up and destroyed as many of the Dragoons as they could.

Faiz and Hikiki were still firing at the giant T-rex dopant. W provide cover by shooting or hitting down any dragoons that came within range of him. After a while, the dopant, as well as the other non humanoid monsters were beaten.

"Accursed Kamen Riders! I'll be your opponent!"

The riders, all in their default forms charge at Shadow Moon, who was proving to be more than a match for them, blocking, dodging, or tanking everything that was being thrown at him.

He started by knocking Decade to the side. He swung at Fourze, which she dodge. He slammed into OOO then swung his sword at Wizard. He puched W square in the face, taking him out of the fight. Next fell Kiva, who despite getting a few hits in, was swiftly beaten. Ryuki and Decade were both elbowed, but got up regardless. Den-O tried tackling Shadow Moon, but that proved ineffective.

When Shadow Moon kicked Decade away, he kinda sealed his fate.

Decade got out the K-Touch and inserted a card into it. It had the symbols of all thirteen of the other riders. He placed the K-Touch on his belt, replacing it with the camera of the Decadriver.

Giant holograms of cards were above the riders, except for Decade. They decended on the riders one at a time as Decade pressed buttons on the K-Touch.

"Putotyra, Hyper, Shining, Blaster, Xtreme, Armed, Survive, Cosmic, King, Armed, Infinity, Survive, Rising, Emperpr, Super Climax." One by one, the riders were turned into their strongest forms. "Final Kamen Ride: Decade." Decade became Decade complete form.

"Uh oh." Shadow Moon knew he was doomed.

OOO, Faiz, Kabuto, Ryuki took aim, they fired their finishers at Shadow Moon. Kiva and Blade used their sword based finishers to add to the fire of destruction, as did Den-O, Wizard, and W. Hibiki and Agito each used a rider punch, as did Kuuga.

"Final attack ride: D-D-D-Decade!"

Decade jumped up and delivered his finisher, which, when it connected with Shadow Moon, sent him flying into the mountain.

"You did it!" Cooper shouted as he and Jack ran up to the riders.

"Alright." Ryuki and Fourze high fived.

"We kicked its ass!" Den-O said triumphantly.

Shadow moon stood alone. His force of Kaijin and foot soldiers had been defeated, and with Team Nadir having fled, he was the last one standing. He limped to shocker's objective, the sub energy.

"Shocker will not conquer this world, but with my final breaths, I will level this planet!"

He grasped the purple orb in his hand before he slammed it against his chest.

He shook as energy flowed through him. He started to mutate, remaking a combination of himself and Doras. He made his way to the entrance of Mt Rushmore

Outside, the rider enhanced heroes were cooling off.

"Whew." Wizard, who removed the helmet said. Gwen approached Cooper along with Jack. "So, I hope you've made up your mind as to who gets the extra movie tickets."

"There are no extra tickets." Cooper said shyly. "They're no tickets at all."

Optimus, who had been told about the deal Cooper made with Jack and Gwen, was laughing, something that earned wide eyed stares from everyone except Jack and Gwen.

"What?!"

"What'dya mean?!"

"I figure you guys wouldn't even talk to me unless you had to, so I made up having the tickets."

"Well played Cooper." Opimus said with a smile on his face. With Agito's helmet removed, it looked like Optimus' head on Agito's body.

"Uh, everyone else saw that right? Optimus laughed." Bulkhead couldn't believe what happened. "He never laughs."

"Correction Bulkhead. I've never laughed at what you or the others have said, due to it not being amusing to me, but what Cooper did was hilarious."

"Did optimus just say hilarious?" Arcee asked. "Why do I get the feeling something bad with happen?"

Suddenly, the Autobots and their allies, minus Decade and Kuuga were robbed of their rider forms. The multicolored energy went into Shadow Doras.

"I will destroy this planet! Starting with you pests!" Shadow Doras grew to giant sized and prepared to fire at them, but Way Big punched him, send him crashing into the mountain, causing a lot of damage to it.

"Go Jack!" June shouted as her currently To'kustar son fought the mutated Shadow Moon.

Shadow Doras and Way Big stood at the same hieght, but even Way Big, Jack's most powerful alien thus far, was not strong enough. He was punched down by Shadow Doras, his head landing near the 'bots and the humans. As Way Big got up he was forced to crouch as Shadow Doras fired at him.

"Tuskasa, give him a hand." Kamen Rider Diend said.

"Daiki?" Decade was confused.

"This is the last bit of help you're getting from me for a while." Diend placed a cad into the diend driver.

"Final form ride. D-D-D-Decade." Diend pointed the Diend Driver to Decade's back, he pulled the trigger, causing Decade to turn into the Jumbo Decadriver.

What happened next surprised except the Autobot's resident Kamen Rider fan Arcee. The jumbo Decadriver went over to Way Big. It attached itself to his waist, turning him into Decade Complete form, but with the Decadriver instead of the K-touch.

"Ore, gattai!" Complete Form Way Big announced. As he got up, he held out his hand and redirected Shadow Dora's blast back at him. He approached the Kaiju and delivered several punches to the chest. He drew the ride booker and swung its sword form, destroying the monster's sword. A kick sent Shadow Doras flying into Mt Rushmore, causing even more damage to the monument.

He drew a card from the ride booker and place it in the decadriver.

"Final Attack Form Hero Ride: O-O-O-Omnitrix." Way Big jumped up. While in the air, twenty two cards appeared in a descending line. On the cards were Jack's alien forms. This was the order: Heatblast, Big Chill, Grey Matter, XLR8, Wildmutt, Four Arms, Upgrade, Diamondhead, Ghostfreak, Ripjaws, Stinkfly, Cannonbolt, Wildvine, Jackwolf, Jackmummy, Jackviktor, Upchuck, Ditto, Way Big, Feedback, and Eye Guy, the final card wasn't an alien form, it was the Omnitrix Symbol. Complete Form Way Big preformed his finishing move, his own Rider Kick. He descended through the cards, building up more and more energy as he fell until he connected with Shadow Doras. Shadow Doras was overloaded with the amount of energy that was going through him, he exploded.

Way Big reverted back to his normal stated as he fell. He landed on the ground, shaking it as he landed, but when he went back to being human, he wasn't seen because of the dust cloud.

The attack that Jack had performed had taken a lot out of him. An exhausted Jack collapsed on the ground. The Autobots, his friends, and his mom ran towards him. The teen seemed to have passed out. June checked for a pulse.

"He needs medical attention." June said, thinking that her son was seriously injured.

Wheeljack rolled his optics. He took a grenade, pulled the pin and tossed it over his shoulder, creating a loud boom that woke Jack up.

"What the hell?!" Jack shouted as he tried to catch his breath. "What happened?" He stood up and looked around. "Please tell me that nobody kissed me."

"We won." Kevin said.

"Altright! Yay! Good job guys." Jack stood up but found that his legs were sore. "Let's just take the rest of the day off."

[Insert song: Next Decade by Gackt, who played Joji Yuki in All Riders vs Dai Shocker]

"Thank you Tsukasa." Optimus bent down and shook the dimension traveler's hand. "The Autobots are in your debt."

"Don't be." The rider said.

"If you insist. However, is this your final destination?"

"It won't be. I still have yet to find a place to call home. One of the worlds has to be my own."

"Just be careful." June said.

"I'll try."

"Hold on, can we at least get a group photo before you leave?" Miko asked.

"Sure. Boy, you take it." Tsukasa tossed his camera to Cooper. The Autobots and their allies got in a line. The order was Yusuke, Optimus, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, June, Wheeljack, Raf, Tsukasa, Kevin, Arcee, Miko, Gwen, and Jack. Before Max could take the picture, there was a blinding light. When it cleared, the Autobots had been made human sized. Beside the human sized Autobots and their allies stood the riders that they used. Kuuga and Decade stood beside Yusuke and Tsukasa respectively.

Cooper took a picture. Something even stranger happened. A fifteenth rider was next to Jack. He was blue and orange and seemed to be a combination of a samurai and an orange. This was Gaim.

"Team Prime, though not all of you are human, in our eyes, you're this world's riders." Agito said to Optimus, his helmet becoming transparent to show the human underneath. The rider's identity was Shouichi Ashikawa.

Bulkhead and Ryuki shook hands and fist bumped. "Keep her safe." Shinji Tatsumi said.

"Death won't stop me, it certainly won't stop you." Faiz, who was Takumi Ogami, said.

Kazuma Kedate appear in front of Smokescreen. "Keep it up."

Hitoshi Hidaka showed himself to Ultra Magnus.

"It was an honor to use your abilities."

"The honor was mine, sir." Hitoshi saluted the Autobot.

June and Souji merely shook hands.

"Glad you didn't lose." Momotaros, an imagin, said. He crossed his arms as he looked away from Wheeljack.

"You have to be such a prick?" Wheeljack mockingly asked.

"Why you-" Momotaros rose up his fist to hit Wheeljack. "Hehehe. I like you."

The young Wataru spoke to Raf. "Really wish we could be friends."

"Same here." Raf said.

"Make sure you keep your sin count as low as possible, if you can." Shotaro said to Kevin.

"Glad I'm not Vince." The osmosian replied. "Don't you wish some movies stuck to that."

Eiji Hino high fived Arcee. "You and Jack make a great team, in both this world, and mine."

"What do you mean?"

"He, you, and I are friend."

Gentaro and Miko did Fourze's handshake. "Wish we could've been friends." The teen with his hair in a pompadour said.

"Yeah, you'd be my third best friend, behind Bulk and Wheeljack."

Haruato handed Gwen a wizard ring. "What's this for?" She asked.

"You'll know when the time comes."

"And you're?" Jack asked.

"Gaim." The Armored Rider said. "We'll meet soon enough." Jack saw Kouta's face for a second.

The riders dissapeared. The Autobots were reverted to their normal sizes.

"Huh?" Jack was confused as to why Tsukasa and Yusuke were leaving. "Tsukasa, where're you going?"

"Who knows?" Tsukasa said this as he and Yusuke walked off. "There's a lot of evil across the multiverse. Besides, we might cross paths again." He turned around and pointed to Jack. "Jack, I may not owe the 'bots, but I owe you one."

"Well, I for one had a blast today." Ja-er wait, Optimus said. What?

"Wait, I thought you were against excessive violence?" Miko asked. "And I think we just killed like a thousand bad guys today."

"That is correct Miko, but this was an exception. And tell me you didn't have fun?"

"Yeah, this was pretty cool." Miko replied.

"Yeah, now I know why Arcee and Jack like these 'Kamen Riders' so much." Kevin added. "Wait, where are they?"

"Jack gave me this note." June said. She opened it and read it aloud. "It says: Dear Team Prime. Arcee and I are going to go catch up to Tsukasa and Yusuke and ask them if they want to hang out with us."

 

Later...

"In war, the fog prevents one from seeing what is in front of them, and when it lifts, there may not be anything remaining of what was once there. However, something else might happen. The fog lifts to show what you were fighting to protect as was the case on this world. We have fought long and hard to protect this small planet from the various evils that plague it, from alien invaders, malevolent humans, to even the planet itself, at the end of the day we Autobots stand triumphant with the allies we have made on this world. They may seem weak and insignificant, but they have proven that they are more than capable of making a difference. I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to all who can receive it, if you come to this planet and have malevolent intentions, we will be here to defeat you."

 

Three years later(takes place after Jack gets the Ultimatrix)...

A nineteen and a half year old Jack Tennyson groaned. You see, he went from being an average student in highschool, to the(not so humble) savior of the galaxy in the course of four months, and a just two short months later, he went from being a nobody on his homeworld of Earth to the the most talked about young adult on the planet. Yeah, Jack might've not become a hero to gain fame, but boy was he loving it. Recently he went on a date with Jennifer Nocturne, who starred in the movie Kamen Rider X as Ryoko Mizuki.

There was yet another news report about him and him being a 'menace'. Unsurprisingly, it was the same Jack hating 'news' caster Will Harangue. Boy did Jack hate him. If he was a violent person, he'd go over to Will's house and blow it up as Ultimate Humungousaur, but that'd just make Harangue right about him.

But why was Jack watching the Harangue Nation? Mr Harangue hates him, and the feeling's mutual with Jack. Well, as to why, Jack has to do a report for his government class on current events.

"And don't get me started on his criminal record. Jack Tennyson has been know to destroy the property of both private individuals and local restaurants."

"Oh for the love of god, could somebody just shut him up for a night?" Jack asked. Little did he know that he would get his wish.

"William M. Harangue," A voice that Jack recognized said. It was coming from off camera. "it's time for you to count up your sins." The camera turned to show Kamen Rider W standing in the door frame.

"What the?! Why's one of Saban's TV show 'heroes' in my studio?" Harangue hated only one thing more than Jack, and that was being interrupted.

"Not just one." Tsukasa's voice was heard. In a flash of grey, Tsukasa appeared behind the anchorman. "Several."

A silver fist tore through the back drop. It belonged to Riderman.

The screen displayed a technical difficulties message. The news show came back on a few seconds later. Kamen Rider X was tying up will Harangue while Riderman held up a large mirror to show the camera, which was Fourze using his camera module.

"We're here to show you people another side to Jack 10." X-rider said after putting a piece of duct tape over Harangue's mouth. "Tsukasa, do you have the video?"

"Yeah. I do." Tsukasa tossed a DVD box to Fourze, who put it in the camera module. "He's the one I owe you Jack." A countdown was displayed. When it reached zero, the video played. It was Jack's best moments as a hero, not his worst moments as a one man disaster zone.

Jack smiled as he relived some old memories. Sure, Will will spin this, saying the riders were fakes in costumes that hijacked his show on Jack's orders, and yeah, some people will believe him, but he didn't care. All Jack cared about was that people got to see the other side of him.

When you're the world's most famous superhero, you gotta take what you can get.

"Funny, when I first got the Omnitrix, I berated Miko for saying I should use the Omnitrix for fame." Jack said as he glanced at the gauntlet like Ultimatrix. "Really wish he hadn't revealed my secret, but I gotta admit, it sure is nice to get a little respect."

 

Years later, again...

The storyteller, the one that met Jack, Tetrax, and Gwen on Incarceron, was speaking with that same group of kids from an earlier chapter.

"And it was on that day that two things happened, one, the Cybertronian civil war was halted, and Shocker's plans of conquering our universe were stopped. But despite that, the battle against evil was far from finished. But that truly is a story for another day."

"But mister Storyteller, you didn't answer my question, what's a Kamen Rider." One of the children said.

"Who needs a bunch of made up TV show characters when you can have the origin story of a real life superhero? Edna, did you get this?" The Storyteller asked his floating robot. The robot, Edna bleeped and shook in response. "Good, title the file, Transformers: Power of Ten."

"Great name ST." Future XLR8 said after he zoomed in. He turned into Jack 10000. "But I'd call it Jack 10, a story of the teenage years of the world's greatest hero."

"Jack, what're you doing here?" The storyteller asked. "I thought you and the missus were on Cybertron."

"We just got back, and I came to pick up my kids." Jack said. "Orion, Ariel, let's go." The magenta Cybertronian girl and the human boy ran up to Jack. Jack turned into XLR8 and picked the kids up and sped out of the building and back home.

 

Chapter and story end, but the adventure is far from over...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has so much to discuss, its author's note is getting its own chapter. But a few things that I'll say regarding the fact that both Decade and Jack made references to Kamen Rider media. Jack it's easy to explain. He lives in a world I would like to live in. No, not that fact that alien are real and are for the most part friendly. Although that'd be great. No, he lives in a world where Kamen Rider is an American TV show.
> 
> Most of the ass kicked in this chapter was not done by Jack, but rather by most of the rest of Team Prime, with help from Tsukasa and Yusuke. However, Jack did get his chance to shine a bit when he turned into Kiva-el. Besides, Jack's done a ton of fighting bad guys already.
> 
> It may've seemed like I turned this into a glorified Kamen Rider crossover in the second half, which, yeah, I kinda did a bit of that, but I picked Kamen Rider as opposed to say, a sentai team with a lot of members because unlike sentai team, Team Prime has demonstrated that they have different ways of dealing with a problem. And I could've had Team Prime turn into the Showa riders, but honestly, where's the fun in that? Using the Heisei riders allowed me to go over the top, and this isn't going to be the last time I use that term in regards to a Kamen Rider crossover.


	50. Chapter 49 Author's Note

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If anything confused you in Team Prime Vs SHOCKER, look to this chapter for your answers

The last chapter's an Author's Note. Yeah, I know it's disappointing, but I wasn't kidding when I said that there's a lot in this chapter that needs to be explained. Now, where to begin?

Yeah, the story you've been reading is a story that's being told to some children. And yes, if you haven't guessed it, Jack's wife in this timeline is Arcee. Wondering how they can have kids even though they're different species, well, one way is that since Jack has the Omnitrix, he was a cybertronian when he and Arcee did it, or maybe the Omnitrix modified Arcee so that she's part human. Regardless, we know that Jack gets a happily ever after, but more than what was in this story happened to Jack. And before anyone asks, Orion and Ariel Tennyson are named that way for a reason. Orion is obviously named after Orion Pax(Optimus Prime), whereas Ariel is named after Elita-1(who in G1 used to be called Ariel).

Oh, we won't see or hear from the 'cons until midway through part three of. To explain it in advance. After Way Big tossed them, they crashed on the planet Charr, where there was a Decepticon outpost. Damaged, the Nemesis was grounded, and due to using repurposed Decepticon Technology from the ruins of Darkmount, there's a field being projected around the Earth, preventing the use of unauthorized space bridges. And with the 'cons out of the picture, the Autobots will be relegated to mere background characters, only appearing a few times here and there.

Everything from here until the end of the story is more an explanation of the Kamen Rider content that was present.

 

So yeah, the first fourteen Heisei Kamen Riders appeared, well, even though technically all of the primary heisei rider made an appearance, only two of them appear, those two being the AR version of Kuuga and Decade, the rest were manifestations of the rider powers. Though the Momotaros that came from the final form ride of Den-O was real, as were the riders who spoke with the ones who used their powers.(Originally, Jack wasn't going to even transform into any aliens, he'd become Gaim, but seeing as he's gonna team up with Gaim two finales from now, he used his regular powers. Ben as Mach was also going to appear, but he's not a primary rider. Also, Mach technically is not a Kamen Rider in this universe, he's a Masked Rider.)

 

I didn't make up the rider battles(Seeing as how I suck at choreographing fight scenes), I lifted them from various Kamen Rider Movies and episodes. And as for the sources, here they are, as well as what fight or fights I took:

Kamen Rider Wizard episode 53 Neverending Story:  
The brawl between the riders and the kaijin

All Riders Vs Dai Shocker:  
Riders vs Dai-Shocker Army(Showa Riders replaced with heisei riders and Big Chill)  
Ichigo, Nigo, Black RX, and Kabuto vs Garagaranda(Ichigo, Nigo, and Black RX replaced with Kuuga, Agito, and Wizard)  
Decade, Den-O, Kiva, Diend, Faiz, and Blade vs Ikadevil(OOO, Big Chill, and Wheeljack added, Diend replaced with Wheeljack)  
J vs King Dark and Jumbo Complete Form Rider Kick

Movie Taisen 2010:  
All heisei rider takedown of Doras(with neo heisei rider final form finishers added)

Movie Taisen Mega Max  
Seven legendary riders+Aqua vs main four Greeed and main four Dopants(Showa riders and Aqua replaced with Kuuga-Kabuto and Wizard)  
Fourze and OOO vs Super Galaxy King

Super Hero Taisen:  
Decade, Blade, and Ryuki vs Doctor G  
Den-O and Gekirangers vs monsters, which became Den-O team, Ryuki, and Fourze vs monsters  
OOO and birth riders vs Monsters, which became OOO and Diamondhead vs monsters.  
Kiva and Go-ongers vs monsters, which became Kiva and Faiz vs monsters  
Fourze vs Apollo Geist  
Hibiki and Magirangers vs monsters, which became Hibiki and Wizard vs monsters,  
Black and Maskman vs Shadow Moon and General Jark, which became Agito, Kabuto, and W vs Cyborg Soldier Level 3 and Kamen Rider Ketaros

Kamen Rider The First:  
Ichigo vs Spider, which became Heatblast vs Clancy(from chapter 48, but forgot to mention the exact scene)

 

And as for the monsters, here's a list of them, since I ain't gonna describe them. Also, I may have missed some.

Main/General monsters: Shadow Moon, Shadow Doras(Ultimate Doras from Movie Taisen 2010), Great Leader Colossus(Monster form of the Forever King)  
Showa Kaijin: Shiomaneking, Deathgaron, Cublican, Croyzel, Ganikomoru, Yattaradamas, Ikafire, Vampire Bat Beastman, Stag Kikkaijiin, Cyborg soldier level three, Starfish-Hitler, Raigyon, Antront, Gynabalas  
Gurongori: Zu-Goom-Gu  
Lords(from Agito): Queen Ant Lord, Leiruus Acutia, Formica Eques  
Mirror Monsters: Raydragoon, Psycorogue, Deadlemur  
Orphnochs: Arch Orphnoch, longhorn Orphnoch, Octopus Orphnoch  
Undead: Darkroach, Spider Undead, Peacock undead  
Makamou: Bakeneko, Kasha  
Worms: Coleoptera Worm Argentum, coleoptera worm, Cassis Worm Gladius, Cammarus worm, Gryllus worm, Culex worm, Salis worm  
Imagin: Clown Imagin  
Fangire: Rat, Moose, warthog fangire  
Dopants: R Nasca Dopant, ClayDoll Dopant, Smilodon Dopant, Terror Dopant, T2 Luna dopant, IceAge Dopant, Anomalocaris Dopant, Gene Dopant, Dummy Dopant  
Greeed: Uva, Mezool(Regular and giant form), Kazari, Gamel  
Yummies: Kamakiri yummy, Kabuto yummy, Batta yummy, Ika-Jaguar, Ageha Yummy, pterodactyl yummies(male and female), Lion-Kurage yummy  
Zodiarts: Unicorn Zodiarts, Perseus Zodiarts, Cygnus Zodiarts, Pyxis zodiarts  
Phantoms: Bahamut phantom  
Monsters from multiple series/movies: Super Galaxy King/SGK(Monster form of Hakaider), Ikadevil, Space Spiderman, Garagaranda, Kani Laser  
Footsoldiers: Waste yummies, Dai-Shocker Combatmen, mole imagin  
Other types of villains: Kamen Rider Ketaros, Forever Ninja, Alternative Zero

 

Forms used:

Kuuga: Growing, Mighty, Dragon, Pegasus, Gourom

Agito: Ground, Flame, Tornador, Trinity,

Ryuki: Survive

Faiz: Faiz Blaster, Accel, Blaster

Blade: Blade Blade,

Hibiki: Armed

Kabuto: Masked, Rider, Hyper

Den-O: Sword, Momotaros, Strike(offscreen transformation), Rod, Ax, Gun, Cou Climax(how the other three taros got here is anyone's guess.)

Kiva: Garulu, Kiva Arrow, Emperor

Decade: Decade, Riderman, Amazon, Decadriver

W: Cyclone/Joker, Cyclone/Metal, Heat/Metal, Heat/Metal, Luna/Trigger, CycloneJokerXtreme

OOO: Tatoba, Takagorrillabatta, OOO Medajalibur, Super Tatoba, Tamashi, Tajador, Putotyra

Fourze: Base, Fire, Magnet, Rocket, Cosmic

Wizard: Flame, Water, All dragon, Infinity

Jack(as a human): Kiva-el(new rider, masculine version of Kiva-la)

Jack(as an alien): Big Chill Ultimate Big Chill, Way Big jumbo complete

 

And here's a vocabuary lesson on some monster names.

Ikadevil, which in japanese is called Ikadebiru. Ika=squid, debiru is similar to the phrase with beer, so Ikadevil can be called squid with beer, a joke that was made twice.

 

And yes, it may seem convenient for the heroes to know how to use their temporary powers(except for Arcee, as we've established that she's a Kamen Rider fan), but that could be explained in any number of ways:

The knowledge of how to use them is imprinted into the powers themselves.

Each character that got a rider power had a favorite season that they like the most.(Would explain June using the Kabuto powers effectively). (This covers June, Arcee, and Miko to an extent)

Possession by one or more of the Imagin. (Covers only Wheeljack, but only before the final form ride and when he's super climax form)

Improvising. (Bulkhead, Optimus, and Bumblebee are covered by this)

Non human biology. (Kevin and Raf)

Mana. No seriously, wizard gets his power from mana. (Gwen)

Something else. (Smokescreen and Ultra Magnus)

 

Here's a list of the riders and the heroes from this universe that they synched with,

Kuuga: Yusuke(Standard user)

Agito: Optimus(Calm and collected)

Ryuki: Bulkhead(Both have some sorta relationship with a dragon)

Faiz: Bumblebee(Both have been handicapped by the main villain)

Blade: Smokescreen(Good heart)

Hibiki: Ultra Magnus (It was either give Hibiki's power to Jack, Ultra Magnus, or Ratchet. Since Jack has the Omnitirx, and Ratchet has lost the privilege to have super powers, Ultra Magnus was the only choice.)

Kabuto: June(Both are allies to good aliens)

Den-O: Wheeljack(Both are very destructive)

Kiva: Raf(Both come from strange families)

Decade: Tsukasa(Standard user)

W(Double): Kevin(Both can be double sided)

OOO: Arcee(Both have suffered loss)

Fourze: Miko(Outgoing, Japanese students)

Wizard: Gwen(Both magic based)

 

Oh, and get this, Hakaider, who transformed into Super Galaxy King and was then destroyed by OOO and Fourze's combined Rider Double Kick, well, he's destroyed, but the threat he posed isn't dead, not by a long shot. You see, in the original Kikaider TV show, there were several Hakaider duplicates used by Proffessor Gil as his assistants. So Hakaider will return. Also, Hakaider having a monster form at all may seem weird, but that's accurate to the original show. And I had no idea that was the case until I researched the Hakaider Squad.


End file.
